diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index a8be6c2e17..a66693f52e 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1557,11 +1557,14 @@ install_conf.set('WEBP_REQUIRED_VERSION',         webp_minver)
 install_conf.set('WMF_REQUIRED_VERSION',          wmf_minver)
 install_conf.set('XGETTEXT_REQUIRED_VERSION',     '0.19')
 
-INSTALL = configure_file(
-  input : 'INSTALL.in',
-  output: 'INSTALL',
-  configuration: install_conf
-)
+if is_git_repository
+  # Tarballs won't have INSTALL.in, only the generated INSTALL.
+  INSTALL = configure_file(
+    input : 'INSTALL.in',
+    output: 'INSTALL',
+    configuration: install_conf
+  )
+endif
 
 
 configure_file(
@@ -1635,7 +1638,9 @@ custom_target('Changelog',
   build_by_default: false,
 )
 
-meson.add_dist_script('meson_dist_script.sh', generate_version_h ? gitversion_h.full_path() : gitversion_h)
+meson.add_dist_script('meson_dist_script.sh',
+                      generate_version_h ?  gitversion_h.full_path() : gitversion_h,
+                      meson.source_root(), meson.build_root())
 
 
 ################################################################################
diff --git a/meson_dist_script.sh b/meson_dist_script.sh
index d900d7d1db..63b389323e 100755
--- a/meson_dist_script.sh
+++ b/meson_dist_script.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,35 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-cp -f 'INSTALL' "${MESON_DIST_ROOT}"
-# rm -f "${MESON_DIST_ROOT}/INSTALL.in"
+GIT_VERSION_H="$1"
 
-cp "$1" "${MESON_DIST_ROOT}"
+# MESON_SOURCE_ROOT and MESON_BUILD_ROOT environment variables are
+# passed since meson 0.54.0 but we depend on 0.53.0 so I also pass them
+# as script arguments. When we bump out meson requirement, this test may
+# go away.
+if [ -z "$MESON_SOURCE_ROOT" ]; then
+  MESON_SOURCE_ROOT="$2"
+fi
+if [ -z "$MESON_BUILD_ROOT" ]; then
+  MESON_BUILD_ROOT="$3"
+fi
+
+# `meson dist` doesn't trigger a build, which is a problem because we
+# need to add some configured/built files. The case where we didn't
+# build at all is the less annoying (we'd get a failure, which is
+# actually acceptable as it warns us). But the case where we would copy
+# outdated data is much more insidious (such as wrong INSTALL
+# information or wrong git information) as it would be silent.
+# See: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/10650
+# And: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/7907
+# This is why we manually trigger, not only a reconfigure, but also a
+# rebuild of the main project before copying data around.
+
+# INSTALL file is generated at configure time.
+meson --reconfigure $MESON_SOURCE_ROOT
+# git-version.h is generated at build time.
+meson compile
+
+cp -f 'INSTALL' "${MESON_DIST_ROOT}"
+rm -f "${MESON_DIST_ROOT}/INSTALL.in"
+
+cp "$GIT_VERSION_H" "${MESON_DIST_ROOT}"