diff --git a/library/git-describe.cmake.in b/library/git-describe.cmake.in
index 13fe4b208..d7d469fe8 100644
--- a/library/git-describe.cmake.in
+++ b/library/git-describe.cmake.in
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 # Generated from git-describe.cmake.in
 set(DFHACK_BUILD_ID "@DFHACK_BUILD_ID@")
 
+if(NOT(EXISTS "${GIT_EXECUTABLE}"))
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "git-describe failed: could not find git at ${GIT_EXECUTABLE}")
+endif()
+
 execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} describe --tags --abbrev=8 --long
     WORKING_DIRECTORY "${dfhack_SOURCE_DIR}"
     OUTPUT_VARIABLE DFHACK_GIT_DESCRIPTION
-    OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
+    OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
+    RESULT_VARIABLE DFHACK_GIT_DESCRIPTION_RESULT)
 execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} rev-parse HEAD
     WORKING_DIRECTORY "${dfhack_SOURCE_DIR}"
     OUTPUT_VARIABLE DFHACK_GIT_COMMIT
@@ -24,6 +29,10 @@ execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} rev-parse HEAD
     OUTPUT_VARIABLE DFHACK_GIT_XML_COMMIT
     OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
 
+if(NOT(${DFHACK_GIT_DESCRIPTION_RESULT} EQUAL 0))
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "git-describe failed: ${DFHACK_GIT_DESCRIPTION_RESULT}")
+endif()
+
 if(${DFHACK_GIT_TAGGED_RESULT} EQUAL 0)
     set(DFHACK_GIT_TAGGED TRUE)
 else()