Including git version in setup.py files. (Requires at least _one_ tag in the repo) Normally used to make things like, "python setup.py sdist" give you a predictable name for files. Normally used with tags on the repo like 0.1 or 2.3.0 You should add RELEASE-VERSION to MANIFEST.in so that end users of the tarball can use this too.

MANIFEST.in

include RELEASE-VERSION
include version.py
# Anything else you normally use

setup.py

from setuptools import setup
# from https://gist.github.com/dcreager/300803 with "-dirty" support added
from version import get_git_version

# From http://bugs.python.org/issue15881
try:
    import multiprocessing
except ImportError:
    pass

"""
This is the wopwop package, it does something nifty I'm sure
"""

setup(
    name='keypit',
    url="wop",
    maintainer="blah",
    maintainer_email="someone@example.org",
    version=get_git_version(),
    long_description=__doc__,
    package_dir={'': 'src'},
    packages=[
        'rme',
    ],
    include_package_data=True,
    setup_requires=['nose>=1.2'],
    tests_require=[
        'coverage',
        'Flask-Testing'
    ],
    test_suite='nose.collector',
    install_requires=[
        'Flask',
        'Jinja2',
        'Werkzeug',
        'pycrypto',
        'gunicorn'
    ]
)

version.py

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

# Calculates the current version number.  If possible, this is the
# output of “git describe”, modified to conform to the versioning
# scheme that setuptools uses.  If “git describe” returns an error
# (most likely because we're in an unpacked copy of a release tarball,
# rather than in a git working copy), then we fall back on reading the
# contents of the RELEASE-VERSION file.
#
# To use this script, simply import it your setup.py file, and use the
# results of get_git_version() as your package version:
#
# from version import *
#
# setup(
#     version=get_git_version(),
#     .
#     .
#     .
# )
#
#
# This will automatically update the RELEASE-VERSION file, if
# necessary.  Note that the RELEASE-VERSION file should *not* be
# checked into git; please add it to your top-level .gitignore file.
#
# You'll probably want to distribute the RELEASE-VERSION file in your
# sdist tarballs; to do this, just create a MANIFEST.in file that
# contains the following line:
#
#   include RELEASE-VERSION

__all__ = ("get_git_version")

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE


def call_git_describe(abbrev):
    try:
        p = Popen(['git', 'describe', '--abbrev=%d' % abbrev],
                  stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
        p.stderr.close()
        line = p.stdout.readlines()[0]
        return line.strip()

    except:
        return None


def is_dirty():
    try:
        p = Popen(["git", "diff-index", "--name-only", "HEAD"],
                  stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
        p.stderr.close()
        lines = p.stdout.readlines()
        return len(lines) > 0
    except:
        return False


def read_release_version():
    try:
        f = open("RELEASE-VERSION", "r")

        try:
            version = f.readlines()[0]
            return version.strip()

        finally:
            f.close()

    except:
        return None


def write_release_version(version):
    f = open("RELEASE-VERSION", "w")
    f.write("%s\n" % version)
    f.close()

def get_git_version(abbrev=7):
    # Read in the version that's currently in RELEASE-VERSION.

    release_version = read_release_version()

    # First try to get the current version using “git describe”.

    version = call_git_describe(abbrev)
    if is_dirty():
        version += "-dirty"

    # If that doesn't work, fall back on the value that's in
    # RELEASE-VERSION.

    if version is None:
        version = release_version

    # If we still don't have anything, that's an error.

    if version is None:
        raise ValueError("Cannot find the version number!")

    # If the current version is different from what's in the
    # RELEASE-VERSION file, update the file to be current.

    if version != release_version:
        write_release_version(version)

    # Finally, return the current version.

    return version


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