diff --git a/admin/publishPrep.sh b/admin/publishPrep.sh
index 1914c60b7..e304cf5af 100755
--- a/admin/publishPrep.sh
+++ b/admin/publishPrep.sh
@@ -2,11 +2,12 @@
 
 # prep environment for publish to sonatype staging if the HEAD commit is tagged
 
-headTag=$(git describe --exact-match ||:)
+# git on travis does not fetch tags, but we have TRAVIS_TAG
+# headTag=$(git describe --exact-match ||:)
 
-if [[ "$headTag" =~ ^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+(-[A-Za-z0-9-]+)? ]]; then
-  echo "HEAD is tagged as $headTag."
-  export publishVersion="set every version := \"$(echo $headTag | sed -e s/^v//)\""
+if [[ "$TRAVIS_TAG" =~ ^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+(-[A-Za-z0-9-]+)? ]]; then
+  echo "Going to release from tag $TRAVIS_TAG!"
+  export publishVersion="set every version := \"$(echo $TRAVIS_TAG | sed -e s/^v//)\""
   export extraTarget="publish-signed"
   cat admin/gpg.sbt >> project/plugins.sbt
   admin/decrypt.sh sensitive.sbt