Be more tolerant to string in VERSION file #334

Job	Run time
rip-and-test	24m 3s
htmldocs	22m 43s
package-arch (debian:buster)	1m 31s
package-arch (debian:bullseye)	1m 34s
package-indep (debian:buster)	1m 2s
rip-and-test-clang	23m 42s
package-arch (debian:bookworm)	1m 29s
package-indep (debian:bullseye)	1m 6s
package-arch (debian:sid)	1m 35s
package-indep (debian:bookworm)	59s
package-indep (debian:sid)	1m 1s
	1h 20m 45s

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