diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a64cb7b..d3113d2 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -22,7 +22,9 @@
 import os
 import re
 import sys
+import runpy
 import subprocess
+from distutils.spawn import find_executable
 
 from setuptools import find_packages, setup
 
@@ -30,14 +32,16 @@ os.chdir(os.path.split(os.path.abspath(__file__))[0])
 
 PKG = "hy"
 VERSIONFILE = os.path.join(PKG, "version.py")
-try:
+if os.path.exists('.git') and find_executable('git'):
     __version__ = (subprocess.check_output
         (["git", "describe", "--tags", "--dirty"])
         .decode('ASCII').strip()
         .replace('-', '+', 1).replace('-', '.'))
     with open(VERSIONFILE, "wt") as o:
         o.write("__version__ = {!r}\n".format(__version__))
-except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
+elif os.path.exists(VERSIONFILE):
+    __version__ = runpy.run_path(VERSIONFILE)['__version__']
+else:
     __version__ = "unknown"
 
 long_description = """Hy is a Python <--> Lisp layer. It helps