diff --git a/maxctrl/CMakeLists.txt b/maxctrl/CMakeLists.txt
index 4ab468542..67fe828e0 100644
--- a/maxctrl/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/maxctrl/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ if (BUILD_MAXCTRL)
 
   if (NPM_FOUND AND NODEJS_FOUND AND NODEJS_VERSION VERSION_GREATER "6.0.0")
 
-    include(configure_version.cmake)
+    configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/version.js.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/lib/version.js @ONLY)
 
     add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/maxctrl/maxctrl
       COMMAND ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/build.sh ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}
diff --git a/maxctrl/configure_version.cmake b/maxctrl/configure_version.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index cba3ce999..000000000
--- a/maxctrl/configure_version.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-include(../VERSION.cmake)
-configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/version.js.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/lib/version.js @ONLY)
diff --git a/maxctrl/package.json b/maxctrl/package.json
index 43c11bbd5..de5ff996d 100644
--- a/maxctrl/package.json
+++ b/maxctrl/package.json
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   "main": "maxctrl.js",
   "scripts": {
     "test": "nyc mocha --timeout 15000 --slow 10000",
-    "preinstall": "cmake -P configure_version.cmake"
+    "preinstall": "test -f lib/version.js || cp lib/version.js.in lib/version.js"
   },
   "keywords": [
     "maxscale"