diff --git a/mpcdf_common.py b/mpcdf_common.py
index b61f54ebb454439e82a677ce42257907a6118833..555daf3ae19ef991663531dd94f9cb9fc2e0483f 100644
--- a/mpcdf_common.py
+++ b/mpcdf_common.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ def check_for_update():
     url = "https://gitlab.mpcdf.mpg.de/mpcdf/osc-plugins.git"
 
     def update_server_rev():
-        server_rev, _ = check_output(["git", "ls-remote", url, "master"], **set_encoding).split(maxsplit=1)
+        server_rev, _ = check_output(["git", "ls-remote", url, "master"], **set_encoding).split(None, 1)
         with open(rev_file, "w") as fd:
             fd.write(server_rev)