Commit 1cb86b6c3136 ("kbuild: save overridden KERNELRELEASE in include/config/kernel.release") set the command that is used for printing the output of kernelrelease only when KBUILD_EXTMOD is not set. Test: make M=$PWD -s kernelversion make M=$PWD -s kernelrelease Should print both. Prints only kernelversion and an empty line for kernelrelease. Included a simple patch that fixes this test.