diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 19e54b349..17ec19f15 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -38,3 +38,4 @@ mobile-widgets/qml/kirigami
 packaging/ios/install-root
 packaging/ios/Info.plist
 packaging/ios/Qt
+appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml
diff --git a/appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml b/appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml.in
similarity index 100%
rename from appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml
rename to appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml.in
diff --git a/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh b/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh
index a9f3b98ea..a0d8e1f5d 100755
--- a/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh
+++ b/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 version=$(git describe --abbrev=12)
 date=$(git log -1 --format="%at" | xargs -I{} date -d @{} +%Y-%m-%d)
-sed -e "s|<release version=\"\" date=\"\" />|<release version=\"$version\" date=\"$date\" />|" -i appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml
+sed -e "s|<release version=\"\" date=\"\" />|<release version=\"$version\" date=\"$date\" />|" appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml.in > appdata/subsurface.appdata.xml