diff --git a/lib/bb/fetch2/git.py b/lib/bb/fetch2/git.py
index 10eb63b20..3109a7256 100644
--- a/lib/bb/fetch2/git.py
+++ b/lib/bb/fetch2/git.py
@@ -976,7 +976,7 @@ class Git(FetchMethod):
         raise bb.fetch2.FetchError("Unable to resolve '%s' in upstream git repository in git ls-remote output for %s" % \
             (ud.unresolvedrev, ud.host+ud.path))
 
-    def latest_versionstring(self, ud, d):
+    def latest_versionstring(self, ud, d, major_version=None):
         """
         Compute the latest release name like "x.y.x" in "x.y.x+gitHASH"
         by searching through the tags output of ls-remote, comparing
@@ -1016,6 +1016,10 @@ class Git(FetchMethod):
 
             pver = m.group('pver').replace("_", ".")
 
+            if major_version:
+                if not pver.startswith(major_version+'.'):
+                    continue
+
             if verstring and bb.utils.vercmp(("0", pver, ""), ("0", verstring, "")) < 0:
                 continue