diff --git a/version.py b/version.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3e845c90e47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+# This program is placed into the public domain.
+
+"""
+Gets the current version number.
+If in a git repository, it is the current git tag.
+Otherwise it is the one contained in the PKG-INFO file.
+
+To use this script, simply import it in your setup.py file
+and use the results of get_version() as your package version:
+
+    from version import *
+
+    setup(
+        ...
+        version=get_version(),
+        ...
+    )
+"""
+
+__all__ = ('get_version')
+
+from os.path import dirname, isdir, join
+import os
+import re
+import subprocess
+
+version_re = re.compile('^Version: (.+)$', re.M)
+
+
+def get_version():
+    d = dirname(__file__)
+
+    if isdir(join(d, '.git')):
+        # Get the version using "git describe".
+        cmd = 'git describe --tags --match [0-9]*'.split()
+        try:
+            version = subprocess.check_output(cmd).decode().strip()
+        except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
+            print('Unable to get version number from git tags')
+            exit(1)
+
+        # PEP 386 compatibility
+        if '-' in version:
+            version = '.post'.join(version.split('-')[:2])
+
+        # Don't declare a version "dirty" merely because a time stamp has
+        # changed. If it is dirty, append a ".dev1" suffix to indicate a
+        # development revision after the release.
+        with open(os.devnull, 'w') as fd_devnull:
+            subprocess.call(['git', 'status'],
+                            stdout=fd_devnull, stderr=fd_devnull)
+
+        cmd = 'git diff-index --name-only HEAD'.split()
+        try:
+            dirty = subprocess.check_output(cmd).decode().strip()
+        except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
+            print('Unable to get git index status')
+            exit(1)
+
+        if dirty != '':
+            version += '.dev1'
+
+    else:
+        # Extract the version from the PKG-INFO file.
+        with open(join(d, 'PKG-INFO')) as f:
+            version = version_re.search(f.read()).group(1)
+
+    return version
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    print(get_version())
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