diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 75138b4..ed8bbb2 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,21 +5,6 @@ from setuptools.command.test import test as TestCommand
 import sys
 import setuptools 
 
-VERSION_BYTES = b'1.5'
-
-def full_version_bytes():
-    import subprocess, time
-    try:
-        commit_num_bytes = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'rev-list', '--count', 'HEAD']).strip()
-        return VERSION_BYTES + b'.' + commit_num_bytes
-    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
-        return VERSION_BYTES
-
-version_bytes = full_version_bytes()
-with open('warcprox/version.txt', 'wb') as out:
-    out.write(version_bytes)
-    out.write(b'\n');
-
 # special class needs to be added to support the pytest written dump-anydbm tests
 class PyTest(TestCommand):
     def finalize_options(self):
@@ -33,7 +18,7 @@ class PyTest(TestCommand):
         sys.exit(errno)
 
 setuptools.setup(name='warcprox',
-        version=version_bytes.decode('utf-8'),
+        version='1.5.0',
         description='WARC writing MITM HTTP/S proxy',
         url='https://github.com/internetarchive/warcprox',
         author='Noah Levitt',
@@ -41,7 +26,6 @@ setuptools.setup(name='warcprox',
         long_description=open('README.rst').read(),
         license='GPL',
         packages=['warcprox'],
-        package_data={'warcprox':['version.txt']},
         install_requires=[
             'certauth>=1.1.0',
             'warctools',
diff --git a/tests/Dockerfile b/tests/Dockerfile
index f2b040a..4a8b5b8 100644
--- a/tests/Dockerfile
+++ b/tests/Dockerfile
@@ -19,3 +19,4 @@ RUN mkdir -vp /etc/service/rethinkdb \
 
 RUN apt-get -y install python-virtualenv git
 RUN apt-get -y install python-gdbm python3-gdbm libpython2.7-dev libpython3.4-dev libffi-dev libssl-dev
+RUN pip install devpi-client
diff --git a/tests/run-tests.sh b/tests/run-tests.sh
index 50deaec..c3f5f07 100755
--- a/tests/run-tests.sh
+++ b/tests/run-tests.sh
@@ -10,11 +10,12 @@ user=$(id -un)
 for python in python2.7 python3.4
 do
 	docker run --rm -i -t --volume="$script_dir/..:/warcprox" internetarchive/rethinkdb /sbin/my_init -- \
-		bash -x -c "adduser --gecos=$user --disabled-password --quiet --uid=$uid $user \
+		bash -x -c " adduser --gecos=$user --disabled-password --quiet --uid=$uid $user \
 			&& sudo -u $user bash -x -c 'cd /warcprox \
+				&& devpi use --set-cfg http://crawl342.us.archive.org:9000/nlevitt/dev \
 				&& virtualenv -p $python /tmp/venv \
 				&& source /tmp/venv/bin/activate \
-				&& pip --log-file /tmp/pip.log install -r requirements.txt . pytest requests \
+				&& pip --log-file /tmp/pip.log install . pytest requests \
 				&& py.test tests \
 				&& py.test --rethinkdb-servers=localhost tests \
 				&& py.test --rethinkdb-servers=localhost --rethinkdb-big-table tests'"
diff --git a/warcprox/__init__.py b/warcprox/__init__.py
index e437074..4c22670 100644
--- a/warcprox/__init__.py
+++ b/warcprox/__init__.py
@@ -1,15 +1,11 @@
 from argparse import Namespace as _Namespace
+from pkg_resources import get_distribution as _get_distribution
+__version__ = _get_distribution('warcprox').version
 
 def digest_str(hash_obj, base32):
     import base64
     return hash_obj.name.encode('utf-8') + b':' + (base64.b32encode(hash_obj.digest()) if base32 else hash_obj.hexdigest().encode('ascii'))
 
-def _read_version_bytes():
-    import os
-    version_txt = os.path.sep.join(__file__.split(os.path.sep)[:-1] + ['version.txt'])
-    with open(version_txt, 'rb') as fin:
-        return fin.read().strip()
-
 class Options(_Namespace):
     def __getattr__(self, name):
         try:
@@ -17,9 +13,6 @@ class Options(_Namespace):
         except AttributeError:
             return None
 
-version_bytes = _read_version_bytes().strip()
-version_str = version_bytes.decode('utf-8')
-
 # XXX linux-specific
 def gettid():
     try:
diff --git a/warcprox/main.py b/warcprox/main.py
index e647a7e..01acf1f 100644
--- a/warcprox/main.py
+++ b/warcprox/main.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def _build_arg_parser(prog=os.path.basename(sys.argv[0])):
     arg_parser.add_argument('--kafka-capture-feed-topic', dest='kafka_capture_feed_topic', 
             default=None, help='kafka capture feed topic')
     arg_parser.add_argument('--version', action='version',
-            version="warcprox {}".format(warcprox.version_str))
+            version="warcprox {}".format(warcprox.__version__))
     arg_parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', dest='verbose', action='store_true')
     arg_parser.add_argument('-q', '--quiet', dest='quiet', action='store_true')
 
diff --git a/warcprox/warc.py b/warcprox/warc.py
index 9391890..eed045c 100644
--- a/warcprox/warc.py
+++ b/warcprox/warc.py
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-# vim:set sw=4 et:
-
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
 import logging
@@ -135,7 +133,7 @@ class WarcRecordBuilder:
         headers.append((warctools.WarcRecord.DATE, warc_record_date))
 
         warcinfo_fields = []
-        warcinfo_fields.append(b'software: warcprox ' + warcprox.version_bytes)
+        warcinfo_fields.append(b'software: warcprox ' + warcprox.__version__.encode('latin1'))
         hostname = socket.gethostname()
         warcinfo_fields.append('hostname: {}'.format(hostname).encode('latin1'))
         warcinfo_fields.append('ip: {}'.format(socket.gethostbyname(hostname)).encode('latin1'))