Extract a setuptools version from the git repository

gitversion.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Author: Douglas Creager <dcreager@dcreager.net>, Christopher Berner <christopherberner@gmail.com>
# This file is placed into the public domain.

# Calculates the current version number.  This is the
# output of “git describe”.
#
# To use this script, simply import it your setup.py file, and use the
# results of get_git_version() as your package version:
#
# import gitversion
#
# setup(
#     version=gitversion.get_git_version(),
#     .
#     .
#     .
# )

__all__ = ("get_git_version")

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

def call_git_describe(abbrev=4):
    try:
        #Need the long option, in case the distance is 0
        p = Popen(['git', 'describe', '--abbrev=%d' % abbrev, '--long'],
                  stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
        p.stderr.close()
        line = p.stdout.readlines()[0]
        return line.strip()
    except:
        return None

def get_git_version(abbrev=4):
    version = call_git_describe(abbrev)

    # If we still don't have anything, that's an error.
    if version is None:
        raise ValueError("Cannot find the version number!")

    # Finally, return the current version.
    return version


if __name__ == "__main__":
    print get_git_version()