diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 222859e..4a086e5 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,17 +1,11 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
-import glob
-import re
-import sys
 import os
+import subprocess
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
-from setuptools.command.install_lib import install_lib as _install_lib
-from distutils.command.build import build as _build
-from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
-from distutils.cmd import Command
+from setuptools.command.sdist import sdist
 
-from eobuilder import VERSION
 
 class eo_sdist(sdist):
 
@@ -28,37 +22,25 @@ class eo_sdist(sdist):
         if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
             os.remove('VERSION')
 
-def get_version():
 
-    version = VERSION
+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.
+    '''
     if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
-        version_file = open('VERSION', 'r')
-        version = version_file.read()
-        version_file.close()
-        return version
-    for d in glob.glob('*'):
-        if not os.path.isdir(d):
-            continue
-        module_file = os.path.join(d, '__init__.py')
-        if not os.path.exists(module_file):
-            continue
-        for v in re.findall("""__version__ *= *['"](.*)['"]""",
-                open(module_file).read()):
-            assert version is None
-            version = v
-        if version:
-            break
-    assert version is not None
+        with open('VERSION', 'r') as v:
+            return v.read()
     if os.path.exists('.git'):
-        import subprocess
-        p = subprocess.Popen(['git','describe','--dirty','--match=v*'],
-                stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+        p = subprocess.Popen(['git', 'describe', '--dirty', '--match=v*'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+                             stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
         result = p.communicate()[0]
-        assert p.returncode == 0, 'git returned non-zero'
-        new_version = result.split()[0][1:]
-        assert new_version.split('-')[0] == version, '__version__ must match the last git annotated tag'
-        version = new_version.replace('-', '.')
-    return version
+        if p.returncode == 0:
+            result = result.split()[0][1:]
+        else:
+            result = '0.0.0-%s' % len(subprocess.check_output(
+                ['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
+        return result.replace('-', '.').replace('.g', '+g')
+    return '0.0.0'
 
 
 setup(name="eobuilder",
@@ -69,13 +51,9 @@ setup(name="eobuilder",
       author_email="info@entrouvert.org",
       maintainer="Jerome Schneider",
       maintainer_email="info@entrouvert.com",
-      install_requires=['pytz',
-          'GitPython'
-      ],
+      install_requires=['pytz', 'GitPython'],
       include_package_data=True,
       url='https://dev.entrouvert.org/projects/eobuilder',
       packages=find_packages(),
       scripts=('eobuilder-ctl', 'eobuildall'),
-      cmdclass={'sdist': eo_sdist},
-)
-
+      cmdclass={'sdist': eo_sdist})