diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index a16750f..cd12fb3 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 recursive-include debian *
 recursive-include tests *.py
+include VERSION
+include README.txt
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 93d8e90..f8312ae 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -4,16 +4,20 @@
 Setup script for eopayment
 '''
 
+import subprocess
 import distutils
 import distutils.core
+import setuptools
+from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
 from glob import glob
 from os.path import splitext, basename, join as pjoin
 import os
 from unittest import TextTestRunner, TestLoader
 import doctest
 
+
 class TestCommand(distutils.core.Command):
-    user_options = [ ]
+    user_options = []
 
     def initialize_options(self):
         self._dir = os.getcwd()
@@ -25,7 +29,7 @@ class TestCommand(distutils.core.Command):
         '''
         Finds all the tests modules in tests/, and runs them.
         '''
-        testfiles = [ ]
+        testfiles = []
         for t in glob(pjoin(self._dir, 'tests', '*.py')):
             if not t.endswith('__init__.py'):
                 testfiles.append('.'.join(
@@ -35,55 +39,62 @@ class TestCommand(distutils.core.Command):
         tests = TestLoader().loadTestsFromNames(testfiles)
         import eopayment
         tests.addTests(doctest.DocTestSuite(eopayment))
-        t = TextTestRunner(verbosity = 4)
+        t = TextTestRunner(verbosity=4)
         t.run(tests)
 
+
+class eo_sdist(sdist):
+
+    def run(self):
+        print "creating VERSION file"
+        if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
+            os.remove('VERSION')
+        version = get_version()
+        version_file = open('VERSION', 'w')
+        version_file.write(version)
+        version_file.close()
+        sdist.run(self)
+        print "removing VERSION file"
+        if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
+            os.remove('VERSION')
+
+
 def get_version():
-    import glob
-    import re
-    import os
-
-    version = None
-    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
+    '''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'):
+        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 not new_version.endswith('-dirty'), 'git workdir is not clean'
-        assert new_version.split('-')[0] == version, '__version__ must match the last git annotated tag'
-        version = new_version.replace('-', '.')
-    return version
+        if p.returncode == 0:
+            return result.split()[0][1:].replace('-', '.').replace('.g', '+g')
+        else:
+            return '0.0.0+%s' % len(
+                subprocess.check_output(
+                    ['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
+    return '0.0.0'
 
-distutils.core.setup(name='eopayment',
-        version=get_version(),
-        license='GPLv3 or later',
-        description='Common API to use all French online payment credit card processing services',
-        long_description=
-            "eopayment is a Python module to interface with French's bank credit card\n"
-            "online payment services. Supported services are ATOS/SIP, SystemPay, and\n"
-            "SPPLUS.",
-        url='http://dev.entrouvert.org/projects/eopayment/',
-        author="Entr'ouvert",
-        author_email="info@entrouvert.com",
-        maintainer="Benjamin Dauvergne",
-        maintainer_email="bdauvergne@entrouvert.com",
-        packages=['eopayment'],
-        install_requires=[
-            'pycrypto >= 2.5'
-        ],
-        cmdclass={'test': TestCommand})
+setuptools.setup(
+    name='eopayment',
+    version=get_version(),
+    license='GPLv3 or later',
+    description='Common API to use all French online payment credit card '
+    'processing services',
+    long_description='eopayment is a Python module to interface with '
+    'French\'s bank credit card online payment services. Supported '
+    'services are ATOS/SIP, SystemPay, and SPPLUS.',
+    url='http://dev.entrouvert.org/projects/eopayment/',
+    author="Entr'ouvert",
+    author_email="info@entrouvert.com",
+    maintainer="Benjamin Dauvergne",
+    maintainer_email="bdauvergne@entrouvert.com",
+    packages=['eopayment'],
+    install_requires=[
+        'pycrypto >= 2.5'
+    ],
+    cmdclass={'test': TestCommand, 'sdist': eo_sdist})