diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 57fcb6e..5b0a3fd 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-recursive-include mandaye/templates *.html
-recursive-include mandaye/static *
+include MANIFEST
+include VERSION
 include mandaye/alembic.ini
+
 recursive-include mandaye/alembic *
+recursive-include mandaye/static *
+recursive-include mandaye/templates *.html
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7e45fc0..7685c41 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
    Setup script for Mandaye
 '''
 
-import mandaye
+import os
+import subprocess
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 from sys import version
@@ -23,8 +24,21 @@ install_requires=[
 if version < '2.7':
     install_requires.append('importlib')
 
+def get_version():
+    if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
+        version_file = open('VERSION', 'r')
+        version = version_file.read()
+        version_file.close()
+        return version
+    if os.path.exists('.git'):
+        p = subprocess.Popen(['git','describe','--long'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+        result = p.communicate()[0]
+        return result.split()[0].replace('-','.')
+    import mandaye
+    return mandaye.VERSION
+
 setup(name="mandaye",
-      version=mandaye.VERSION,
+      version=get_version(),
       license="AGPLv3 or later",
       description="Mandaye, modular reverse proxy to authenticate",
       url="http://dev.entrouvert.org/projects/reverse-proxy/",