diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 9144564..eef1020 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -24,22 +24,30 @@ class eo_sdist(sdist):
 
 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', 'r') as v:
             return v.read()
     if os.path.exists('.git'):
-        p = subprocess.Popen(['git', 'describe', '--dirty', '--match=v*'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
-                             stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+        p = subprocess.Popen(
+            ['git', 'describe', '--dirty=.dirty', '--match=v*'],
+            stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE
+        )
         result = p.communicate()[0]
         if p.returncode == 0:
-            result = result.split()[0][1:]
+            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:
-            result = '0.0.0-%s' % len(subprocess.check_output(
-                ['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
-        return result.decode('utf-8').replace('-', '.').replace('.g', '+g')
-    return '0.0.0'
+            return '0.0.post%s' % len(
+                    subprocess.check_output(
+                            ['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
+    return '0.0'
 
 
 setup(name="ldaptools",