diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 88d2a99029..7bfff05564 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -319,9 +319,8 @@ check from cmake.
 
 Alternatively, you may point the URL as a local path where the repository is.
 This is convenient when bisecting a problem in a dependency with `git bisect`.
-This requires running `make distclean` the first time once to remove traces of
-the previous build. Hash checking is always skipped in this case regardless of
-`DEPS_IGNORE_SHA`.
+This may require running `make distclean` between each build. Hash checking is
+always skipped in this case regardless of `DEPS_IGNORE_SHA`.
 
 ```bash
 LUAJIT_URL /home/user/luajit
diff --git a/cmake/Deps.cmake b/cmake/Deps.cmake
index 7a098415d7..214e015d1c 100644
--- a/cmake/Deps.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Deps.cmake
@@ -51,19 +51,12 @@ function(get_externalproject_options name DEPS_IGNORE_SHA)
   string(TOUPPER ${name} name_allcaps)
   set(url ${${name_allcaps}_URL})
 
-  set(EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS DOWNLOAD_NO_PROGRESS TRUE)
+  set(EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS
+    DOWNLOAD_NO_PROGRESS TRUE
+    EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS URL ${${name_allcaps}_URL})
 
-  if(EXISTS ${url})
-    list(APPEND EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS
-      GIT_REPOSITORY ${${name_allcaps}_URL})
-    if(${CMAKE_VERSION} VERSION_GREATER_EQUAL 3.18)
-      list(APPEND EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS GIT_REMOTE_UPDATE_STRATEGY CHECKOUT)
-    endif()
-  else()
-    list(APPEND EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS URL ${${name_allcaps}_URL})
-    if(NOT ${DEPS_IGNORE_SHA})
-      list(APPEND EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS URL_HASH SHA256=${${name_allcaps}_SHA256})
-    endif()
+  if(NOT ${DEPS_IGNORE_SHA})
+    list(APPEND EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS URL_HASH SHA256=${${name_allcaps}_SHA256})
   endif()
 
   set(EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS ${EXTERNALPROJECT_OPTIONS} PARENT_SCOPE)