diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 804af8b5127a4570cdd50769f6d0afb4dc2fb0bd..8aa3696c931fe7e084ef721f81ae86852c3aa7e1 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -9,18 +9,18 @@ endif(POLICY CMP0048)
 # version file. If GIT fails, use the previous known version.
 find_program(GIT_EXEC "git")
 message( STATUS "Looking for git ${GIT_EXEC}" )
-if(VERSION)
-    message( STATUS "MOOSE version is set to ${VERSION} at build time" )
+if(VERSION_MOOSE)
+    message( STATUS "MOOSE version is set to ${VERSION_MOOSE} at build time" )
 elseif(GIT_EXEC)
     message( STATUS "Getting version by reading git tags" )
     execute_process( 
         COMMAND ${GIT_EXEC} describe --tags --long
         WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}
-        OUTPUT_VARIABLE VERSION
+        OUTPUT_VARIABLE VERSION_MOOSE
         OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
     )
 endif( )
-message( STATUS "Building version ${VERSION}" )
+message( STATUS "Building version ${VERSION_MOOSE}" )
 
 # Prefix
 message( STATUS "CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX= ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}" )
@@ -61,6 +61,11 @@ file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${PYMOOSE_BUILD_DIR})
 # different platform.
 set(OUTPUT_MOOSEBIN ${PYMOOSE_BUILD_DIR}/moose.bin)
 
+# NOTE: Do not use ExternalProject to build moose-core. There is no simple way
+# to export environment variable in ExrernalProject command  to subshell.
+# HDF_ROOT and GSL_ROOT etc variable are used by cmake of moose-core repo to
+# find appropriate libraries. Using ExternalProject is *most* likely to cause
+# build failure on OBS.
 configure_file( 
     ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/build_moose-core.sh.in 
     ${PYMOOSE_BUILD_DIR}/build_moose-core.sh 
diff --git a/cmake/build_moose-core.sh.in b/cmake/build_moose-core.sh.in
index a737eeb23f6c4f15c900a39e513543981a6127b1..5e6530c5b35a38ff4c39c05d737da0b0e685debc 100755
--- a/cmake/build_moose-core.sh.in
+++ b/cmake/build_moose-core.sh.in
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=@PYMOOSE_INSTALL_DIR@ \
     -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
     -DWITH_BOOST=@WITH_BOOST@ \
     -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=@PYTHON_EXECUTABLE@ \
-    -DVERSION_MOOSE=@VERSION@ \
+    -DVERSION_MOOSE=@VERSION_MOOSE@ \
     @CMAKE_PYMOOSE_ARGS@ \
     @PYMOOSE_SOURCE_DIR@