diff --git a/src/etc/snapshot.py b/src/etc/snapshot.py
index 8aeee7e22eb..036bfd2cf08 100644
--- a/src/etc/snapshot.py
+++ b/src/etc/snapshot.py
@@ -195,7 +195,30 @@ def make_snapshot(stage, triple):
 
     return file1
 
-def determine_curr_snapshot_info(triple):
+def curr_snapshot_rev():
+  i = 0
+  found_snap = False
+  date = None
+  rev = None
+
+  f = open(snapshotfile)
+  for line in f.readlines():
+    i += 1
+    parsed = parse_line(i, line)
+    if (not parsed): continue
+
+    if parsed["type"] == "snapshot":
+      date = parsed["date"]
+      rev = parsed["rev"]
+      found_snap = True
+      break
+
+  if not found_snap:
+    raise Exception("no snapshot entries in file")
+
+  return (date, rev)
+
+def determine_curr_snapshot(triple):
   i = 0
   platform = get_platform(triple)
 
@@ -228,7 +251,4 @@ def determine_curr_snapshot_info(triple):
     raise Exception("no snapshot file found for platform %s, rev %s" %
                     (platform, rev))
 
-  return (date, rev, platform, hsh)
-
-def determine_curr_snapshot(triple):
-  return full_snapshot_name(*determine_curr_snapshot_info(triple))
+  return full_snapshot_name(date, rev, platform, hsh)
diff --git a/src/etc/tidy.py b/src/etc/tidy.py
index 8157ffba3ef..bd6448d156e 100644
--- a/src/etc/tidy.py
+++ b/src/etc/tidy.py
@@ -57,12 +57,13 @@ try:
             match = re.match(r'^.*//\s*SNAP\s+(\w+)', line)
             if match:
                 hsh = match.group(1)
-                a, b, c, phash = snapshot.determine_curr_snapshot_info()
-                if not phash.startswith(hsh):
-                    report_err("Snapshot out of date: " + line)
+                date, rev = snapshot.curr_snapshot_rev()
+                if not hsh.startswith(rev):
+                    report_err("snapshot out of date (" + date 
+                      + "): " + line)
             else:
                 if "SNAP" in line:
-                    report_warn("Unmatched SNAP line: " + line)
+                    report_warn("unmatched SNAP line: " + line)
 
         if (line.find('\t') != -1 and
             fileinput.filename().find("Makefile") == -1):