diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fcc4216..be777fd 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -67,21 +67,29 @@ class install_lib(_install_lib):
 
 def get_version():
     """Use the VERSION, if absent generates a version with git describe, if not
-    tag exists, take 0.0.0- and add the length of the commit log.
+    tag exists, take 0.0- and add the length of the commit log.
     """
     if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
         with open('VERSION') as v:
             return v.read()
     if os.path.exists('.git'):
         p = subprocess.Popen(
-            ['git', 'describe', '--dirty', '--match=v*'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE
+            ['git', 'describe', '--dirty=.dirty', '--match=v*'],
+            stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+            stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
         )
         result = p.communicate()[0]
         if p.returncode == 0:
-            return result.decode('ascii').split()[0][1:].replace('-', '.')
+            result = result.decode('ascii').strip()[1:]  # strip spaces/newlines and initial v
+            if '-' in result:  # not a tagged version
+                real_number, commit_count, commit_hash = result.split('-', 2)
+                version = '%s.post%s+%s' % (real_number, commit_count, commit_hash)
+            else:
+                version = result
+            return version
         else:
-            return '0.0.0-%s' % len(subprocess.check_output(['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
-    return '0.0.0'
+            return '0.0.post%s' % len(subprocess.check_output(['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
+    return '0.0'
 
 
 setup(