diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7ce84be3..a84a844d 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
 import os
 from setuptools import setup
 
-from smop.version import __version__ as __VERSION__
+try:
+    __VERSION__ = os.popen("git describe --tags").read().strip()
+except OSError as e:
+    __VERSION__ = ""
+
+open("version.py","w").write("smop/__version__='%s'" % __VERSION__)
+#from smop.version import __version__ as __VERSION__
 
 setup(
     author = 'Victor Leikehman',
diff --git a/smop/main.py b/smop/main.py
index 298ebd3d..c0ba35f8 100644
--- a/smop/main.py
+++ b/smop/main.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 def print_header(fp):
     if options.no_header:
         return
+    print("# Running Python %s" % sys.version, file=fp)
     print("# Generated with SMOP ", __version__, file=fp)
     print("from libsmop import *", file=fp)
     print("#", options.filename, file=fp)
diff --git a/smop/version.py b/smop/version.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 2ea2309f..00000000
--- a/smop/version.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-__version__='0.39'