diff --git a/confluent_server/makesetup b/confluent_server/makesetup
index 645fd2bf..2ee30143 100755
--- a/confluent_server/makesetup
+++ b/confluent_server/makesetup
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 cd `dirname $0`
-VERSION=`git tag -l|tail -n 1`
-NUMCOMMITS=`git rev-list $VERSION..HEAD|wc -l`
-if [ "$NUMCOMMITS" -ne 0 ]; then
-    VERSION=$VERSION.dev$NUMCOMMITS.g`git rev-parse --short HEAD`
+VERSION=`git describe|cut -d- -f 1`
+NUMCOMMITS=`git describe|cut -d- -f 2`
+if [ "$NUMCOMMITS" != "$VERSION"  ]; then
+    VERSION=$VERSION.dev$NUMCOMMITS.g`git describe|cut -d- -f 3`
 fi
 echo $VERSION > VERSION
 sed -e "s/#VERSION#/$VERSION/" setup.py.tmpl > setup.py