diff --git a/src/Oscar.jl b/src/Oscar.jl
index b8ed02708a5a..1f983f0c7c87 100644
--- a/src/Oscar.jl
+++ b/src/Oscar.jl
@@ -145,12 +145,12 @@ end
 
 const PROJECT_TOML = Pkg.TOML.parsefile(joinpath(@__DIR__, "..", "Project.toml"))
 const VERSION_NUMBER = VersionNumber(PROJECT_TOML["version"])
+const PROJECT_UUID = UUID(PROJECT_TOML["uuid"])
 
 const is_dev = (function()
-        uuid = PROJECT_TOML["uuid"]
         deps = Pkg.dependencies()
-        if Base.haskey(deps, uuid)
-          if deps[uuid].is_tracking_path
+        if Base.haskey(deps, PROJECT_UUID)
+          if deps[PROJECT_UUID].is_tracking_path
             return true
           end
         end
diff --git a/src/Serialization/main.jl b/src/Serialization/main.jl
index 63bdbdc4edf7..95dde799d91c 100644
--- a/src/Serialization/main.jl
+++ b/src/Serialization/main.jl
@@ -127,7 +127,6 @@
 # the only parameter needed for such types is their parent.
 
 using JSON
-using UUIDs
 
 include("serializers.jl")
 
@@ -163,10 +162,14 @@ function version_number(dict::Dict)
   return VersionNumber(dict[:major], dict[:minor], dict[:patch])
 end
 
-function serialization_version_info()
+const oscar_serialization_version = Ref{Dict{Symbol, Any}}()
+
+function get_oscar_serialization_version()
+  if isassigned(oscar_serialization_version)
+    return oscar_serialization_version[]
+  end
   if is_dev
-    path = Oscar.oscardir
-    commit_hash = readchomp(`git -C $path log -n 1 --pretty=format:"%H"`)
+    commit_hash = get(_get_oscar_git_info(), :commit, "unknown")
     version_info = "$VERSION_NUMBER-$commit_hash"
     result = Dict{Symbol, Any}(
       :Oscar => ["https://github.com/oscar-system/Oscar.jl", version_info]
@@ -176,9 +179,8 @@ function serialization_version_info()
       :Oscar => ["https://github.com/oscar-system/Oscar.jl", VERSION_NUMBER]
     )
   end
-  return result
+  return oscar_serialization_version[] = result
 end
-const oscar_serialization_version = serialization_version_info()
 
 ################################################################################
 # (De|En)coding types
@@ -482,7 +484,7 @@ function save(io::IO, obj::T; metadata::Union{MetaData, Nothing}=nothing,
   s = state(serializer_open(io, serializer_type))
   save_data_dict(s) do
     # write out the namespace first
-    save_header(s, oscar_serialization_version, :_ns)
+    save_header(s, get_oscar_serialization_version(), :_ns)
 
     save_typed_object(s, obj)
 
diff --git a/src/Serialization/upgrades/main.jl b/src/Serialization/upgrades/main.jl
index 6525c4015c61..541f6e4b61c8 100644
--- a/src/Serialization/upgrades/main.jl
+++ b/src/Serialization/upgrades/main.jl
@@ -84,6 +84,6 @@ function upgrade(dict::Dict{Symbol, Any}, dict_version::VersionNumber)
       upgraded_dict = upgrade_script(s, upgraded_dict)
     end
   end
-  upgraded_dict[:_ns] = oscar_serialization_version
+  upgraded_dict[:_ns] = get_oscar_serialization_version()
   return upgraded_dict
 end
diff --git a/src/imports.jl b/src/imports.jl
index ffde3fd5702f..3c52c0ff3907 100644
--- a/src/imports.jl
+++ b/src/imports.jl
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 using Pkg
 using Random
 using RandomExtensions
+using UUIDs
 
 # our packages
 import AbstractAlgebra
diff --git a/src/utils/versioninfo.jl b/src/utils/versioninfo.jl
index eeb71af21ed5..df8494bcc608 100644
--- a/src/utils/versioninfo.jl
+++ b/src/utils/versioninfo.jl
@@ -3,55 +3,77 @@
 # In a bare repo HEAD will not point to the correct commit so we use the git
 # tree-hash that Pkg.jl provides and manually map this to a corresponding
 # commit.
-function _lookup_commit_from_cache(url::AbstractString, tree::AbstractString)
-   if Sys.which("git") !== nothing
-      try
-         path = Pkg.Types.add_repo_cache_path(url)
-         if isdir(path)
-            commit = readchomp(`sh -c "git -C $path log --oneline --all --pretty='tree %T;%H' | grep \"^tree $tree\" | cut -d\; -f2 | head -n1"`)
-            return readchomp(`git -C $path show -s --format=", %h -- %ci" $commit`)
-         end
-      catch
+function _lookup_commit_from_cache!(info::Dict, url::AbstractString, tree::AbstractString)
+  if Sys.which("git") !== nothing
+    try
+      path = Pkg.Types.add_repo_cache_path(url)
+      if isdir(path)
+        commit = readchomp(`sh -c "git -C $path log --oneline --all --pretty='tree %T;%H' | grep \"^tree $tree\" | cut -d\; -f2 | head -n1"`)
+        c = readchomp(`git -C $path show -s --format="%H#%ci" $commit`)
+        (info[:commit], info[:date]) = split(c, "#")
       end
-   end
-   return ""
+    catch
+    end
+  end
 end
 
-function _lookup_git_branch(dir::AbstractString; commit=false)
-   info = ""
-   if Sys.which("git") !== nothing &&
-         isdir(joinpath(dir,".git"))
-      try
-         ref = readchomp(`git -C $dir rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`)
-         info = " - #$(ref)"
-         if commit
-            c = readchomp(`git -C $dir show -s --format="%h -- %ci" HEAD`)
-            info = "$info, $c"
-         end
-      catch
-      end
-   end
-   return info
+function _lookup_git_branch!(info::Dict, dir::AbstractString)
+  # the .git entry might be a file instead of a dir when using git worktrees
+  if Sys.which("git") !== nothing &&
+    ispath(joinpath(dir, ".git"))
+    try
+      ref = readchomp(`git -C $dir rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`)
+      info[:branch] = ref
+      c = readchomp(`git -C $dir show -s --format="%H#%ci" HEAD`)
+      (info[:commit], info[:date]) = split(c, "#")
+    catch
+    end
+  end
+end
+
+function _get_git_info(dep::Union{Pkg.API.PackageInfo,AbstractString})
+  info = Dict{Symbol,String}()
+  if dep isa Pkg.API.PackageInfo && dep.is_tracking_repo
+    _lookup_commit_from_cache!(info, dep.git_source, dep.tree_hash)
+    # this might be a branch, tag, or commit hash
+    info[:branch] = dep.git_revision
+  elseif dep isa Pkg.API.PackageInfo && dep.is_tracking_path
+    _lookup_git_branch!(info, dep.source)
+  elseif dep isa AbstractString
+    _lookup_git_branch!(info, dep)
+  end
+  return info
+end
+
+function _get_oscar_git_info()
+  # Oscar is either one of the dependencies or the active project.
+  # For the active project we try to use the Oscar path as git directory.
+  oscarinfo = get(Pkg.dependencies(), PROJECT_UUID, Oscar.oscardir)
+  return _get_git_info(oscarinfo)
 end
 
-function _deps_git_info(dep::Pkg.API.PackageInfo; commit=false)
-   if dep.is_tracking_repo
-      info = commit ? _lookup_commit_from_cache(dep.git_source, dep.tree_hash) : ""
-      return " - #$(dep.git_revision)$info"
-   elseif dep.is_tracking_path
-      return _lookup_git_branch(dep.source; commit=commit)
-   end
-   return ""
+function _format_git_info(info::Dict; branch=true, commit=false)
+  val = String[]
+  if branch && haskey(info, :branch)
+    push!(val, "#$(info[:branch])")
+  end
+  if commit && haskey(info, :commit)
+    push!(val, "$(info[:commit][1:10]) -- $(info[:date])")
+  end
+  return length(val) > 0 ? " - $(join(val, ", "))" : ""
 end
 
 function _print_dependency_versions(io::IO, deps::AbstractArray{<:AbstractString}; padding="    ", suffix="", branch=false, commit=false)
-   width = maximum(length.(deps))+length(suffix)+2
-   deps = filter(d->d.name in deps, collect(values(Pkg.dependencies())))
-   deps = sort!(deps; by=x->x.name)
-   for dep in deps
-      print(io, "$(padding)$(rpad(dep.name*suffix, width, ' ')) v$(dep.version)")
-      println(io, branch ? _deps_git_info(dep; commit=commit) : "")
-   end
+  width = maximum(length.(deps))+length(suffix)+2
+  deps = filter(d->d.name in deps, collect(values(Pkg.dependencies())))
+  deps = sort!(deps; by=x->x.name)
+  for dep in deps
+    print(io, "$(padding)$(rpad(dep.name*suffix, width, ' ')) v$(dep.version)")
+    if branch || commit
+      print(io, _format_git_info(_get_git_info(dep); branch=branch, commit=commit))
+    end
+    println(io)
+  end
 end
 
 @doc raw"""
@@ -67,22 +89,25 @@ Print the versions of all Oscar-related dependencies.
 - `full::Bool=false`  : include all of the above
 """
 function versioninfo(io::IO=stdout; branch=false, jll=false, julia=false, commit=false, full=false)
-   if full
-      branch = jll = julia = commit = true
-   end
-   print(io, "OSCAR version $(VERSION_NUMBER)")
-   println(io, branch ? _lookup_git_branch(Oscar.oscardir; commit=commit) : "")
-   println(io, "  combining:")
-   _print_dependency_versions(io, cornerstones; suffix=".jl", branch=branch, commit=commit)
-   if jll
-      println(io, "  building on:")
-      _print_dependency_versions(io, jll_deps; branch=branch, commit=commit)
-      println(io, "See `]st -m` for a full list of dependencies.")
-   end
-   if julia
-      println(io, "")
-      Main.InteractiveUtils.versioninfo(io)
-      println(io, Base.TAGGED_RELEASE_BANNER)
-   end
+  if full
+    branch = jll = julia = commit = true
+  end
+  print(io, "OSCAR version $(VERSION_NUMBER)")
+  if branch || commit
+    print(io, _format_git_info(_get_oscar_git_info(); branch=branch, commit=commit))
+  end
+  println(io)
+  println(io, "  combining:")
+  _print_dependency_versions(io, cornerstones; suffix=".jl", branch=branch, commit=commit)
+  if jll
+    println(io, "  building on:")
+    _print_dependency_versions(io, jll_deps; branch=branch, commit=commit)
+    println(io, "See `]st -m` for a full list of dependencies.")
+  end
+  if julia
+    println(io, "")
+    Main.InteractiveUtils.versioninfo(io)
+    println(io, Base.TAGGED_RELEASE_BANNER)
+  end
 end