diff --git a/get_version.sh b/get_version.sh
index b830059..ed0cf00 100755
--- a/get_version.sh
+++ b/get_version.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,20 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+git update-index -q --ignore-submodules --refresh
+# Disallow unstaged changes in the working tree
+if ! git diff-files --quiet --ignore-submodules --
+then
+    echo >&2 "Error: there are unstaged changes."
+    git diff-files --name-status -r --ignore-submodules -- >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Disallow uncommitted changes in the index
+if ! git diff-index --cached --quiet HEAD --ignore-submodules --
+then
+    echo >&2 "Error: there are uncommitted changes."
+    git diff-index --cached --name-status -r --ignore-submodules HEAD -- >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 git describe --exact-match 2>/dev/null || echo "0.11-git$(git show -s --pretty=format:%cI.%h | tr -d ':' | tr -d '-' | tr '.' '-' | sed 's/T[0-9\+]*//g')"
diff --git a/make_release.sh b/make_release.sh
index af98b56..b679219 100755
--- a/make_release.sh
+++ b/make_release.sh
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@
 # git checkout master
 
 VERSION=$(./get_version.sh)
+if [ ! $? -eq 0 ]
+then
+    echo >&2 "Error: get_version.sh failed!"
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 DIR=tint2-$VERSION
 echo "Making release $DIR"