diff --git a/libexec/rbenv-local b/libexec/rbenv-local
index 010e93b3..8b08a429 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv-local
+++ b/libexec/rbenv-local
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@ set -e
 RBENV_VERSION="$1"
 RBENV_VERSION_FILE=".rbenv-version"
 
-if [ -n "$RBENV_VERSION" ]; then
+if [ "$RBENV_VERSION" = "--unset" ]; then
+  rm -f "$RBENV_VERSION_FILE"
+elif [ -n "$RBENV_VERSION" ]; then
   rbenv-version-file-write "$RBENV_VERSION_FILE" "$RBENV_VERSION"
 else
   rbenv-version-file-read "$RBENV_VERSION_FILE" ||