diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index fe7fff4..e4176d7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Get linux/svtminion.sh on main branch sha256sum
         run: |
           echo "SH=$(sha256sum linux/svtminion.sh | awk '{ print $1 }')" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
-          echo "VMTS_VERSION=$(sh linux/svtminion.sh --version | awk '{ print $4 }')" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+          echo "VMTS_VERSION=$(bash linux/svtminion.sh --version | awk '{ print $1 }')" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
           echo "DGM  SH ,${SH}, and VMTS_VERSION ,${VMTS_VERSION},"
 
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
diff --git a/.github/workflows/scripts/cut-release.py b/.github/workflows/scripts/cut-release.py
index 7cf3aac..41bfc97 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/scripts/cut-release.py
+++ b/.github/workflows/scripts/cut-release.py
@@ -197,8 +197,8 @@ def main():
     )
     svtminion_script_path.write_text(
         re.sub(
-            r'SCRIPT_VERSION="(.*)"',
-            f'SCRIPT_VERSION="{options.release_tag.lstrip("v")}"',
+            r'readonly SCRIPT_VERSION="(.*)"',
+            f'readonly SCRIPT_VERSION="{options.release_tag.lstrip("v")}"',
             svtminion_script_path.read_text(),
         )
     )
@@ -212,8 +212,8 @@ def main():
     )
     svtminion_script_path.write_text(
         re.sub(
-            r'\$SCRIPT_VERSION= "(.*)"',
-            f'$SCRIPT_VERSION= "{options.release_tag.lstrip("v")}"',
+            r'\$SCRIPT_VERSION = "(.*)"',
+            f'$SCRIPT_VERSION = "{options.release_tag.lstrip("v")}"',
             svtminion_script_path.read_text(),
         )
     )
diff --git a/linux/svtminion.sh b/linux/svtminion.sh
index e1d9a26..2f2a218 100755
--- a/linux/svtminion.sh
+++ b/linux/svtminion.sh
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ set -o pipefail
 # using bash for now
 # run this script as root, as needed to run Salt
 
-readonly SCRIPT_VERSION='SCRIPT_VERSION_REPLACE'
+readonly SCRIPT_VERSION="SCRIPT_VERSION_REPLACE"
 
 # definitions