diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0c4da30..c6acf74 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -23,11 +23,12 @@ import subprocess
 import sys
 
 from setuptools.command.install_lib import install_lib as _install_lib
+from setuptools.command.sdist import sdist
 from distutils.command.build import build as _build
-from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
 from distutils.cmd import Command
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
+
 class eo_sdist(sdist):
     def run(self):
         if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
@@ -40,20 +41,32 @@ class eo_sdist(sdist):
         if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
             os.remove('VERSION')
 
+
 def get_version():
+    '''Use the VERSION, if absent generates a version with git describe, if not
+       tag exists, take 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
+        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)
+        p = subprocess.Popen(
+            ['git', 'describe', '--dirty=.dirty', '--match=v*'],
+            stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+            stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
+        )
         result = p.communicate()[0]
         if p.returncode == 0:
-            version = str(result.split()[0][1:])
-            version = version.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
-    return '0'
+        else:
+            return '0.0.post%s' % len(subprocess.check_output(['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD']).splitlines())
+    return '0.0'
 
 
 class compile_translations(Command):
@@ -67,17 +80,18 @@ class compile_translations(Command):
         pass
 
     def run(self):
+        curdir = os.getcwd()
         try:
             from django.core.management import call_command
             for path, dirs, files in os.walk('atreal_openads'):
                 if 'locale' not in dirs:
                     continue
-                curdir = os.getcwd()
                 os.chdir(os.path.realpath(path))
                 call_command('compilemessages')
-                os.chdir(curdir)
         except ImportError:
             sys.stderr.write('!!! Please install Django >= 1.4 to build translations\n')
+        finally:
+            os.chdir(curdir)
 
 
 class build(_build):