diff -r 0b2ee57dfdb1 -r 9626819b2e3d setup.py
--- a/setup.py	Tue Jan 13 23:17:19 2009 +0100
+++ b/setup.py	Sat Jan 10 18:02:38 2009 -0600
@@ -26,15 +26,13 @@
     raise SystemExit(
         "Couldn't import standard zlib (incomplete Python install).")
 
-import os
+import os, time
 import shutil
 import tempfile
 from distutils.core import setup, Extension
 from distutils.command.install_data import install_data
 from distutils.ccompiler import new_compiler
 
-import mercurial.version
-
 extra = {}
 scripts = ['hg']
 if os.name == 'nt':
@@ -95,8 +93,21 @@
 except ImportError:
     pass
 
-# specify version string, otherwise 'hg identify' will be used:
-version = ''
+try:
+    l = os.popen('hg id -it').read().split()
+    while len(l) > 1 and l[-1][0].isalpha(): # remove non-numbered tags
+        l.pop()
+    version = l[-1] or 'unknown' # latest tag or revision number
+    if version.endswith('+'):
+        version += time.strftime('%Y%m%d')
+
+except OSError:
+    version = "unknown"
+
+f = file("mercurial/__version__.py", "w")
+f.write('# this file is autogenerated by setup.py\n')
+f.write('version = "%s"\n' % version)
+f.close()
 
 class install_package_data(install_data):
     def finalize_options(self):
@@ -104,7 +115,6 @@
                                    ('install_lib', 'install_dir'))
         install_data.finalize_options(self)
 
-mercurial.version.remember_version(version)
 cmdclass = {'install_data': install_package_data}
 
 ext_modules=[
@@ -140,7 +150,7 @@
     pass
 
 setup(name='mercurial',
-      version=mercurial.version.get_version(),
+      version=version,
       author='Matt Mackall',
       author_email='mpm@selenic.com',
       url='http://selenic.com/mercurial',