diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7597187..564cd56 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 MAKESELF:=makeself
 LICENSE:=$(shell cat ./license.txt)
-VERSION:=$(shell cd src && python -c "import msspec; print(msspec.__version__)")
+#VERSION:=$(shell cd src && python -c "import msspec; print(msspec.__version__)")
+VERSION:=$(shell git describe|sed 's/-\([[:digit:]]\+\)-.*/post\1/')
 SETUPFILE:=pymsspec-$(VERSION).setup
 
 .PHONY: clean purge version
 
+
 clean:
 	@rm -rf *.setup
 
@@ -20,5 +22,6 @@ purge: clean
 
 selfex: purge
 	@echo "Creating the self-extractible setup program... "
+	@echo "__version__ = \"$(VERSION)\"" > ./src/msspec/version.py
 	$(MAKESELF) --license "$(LICENSE)" ./src $(SETUPFILE) "Python MsSpec"  ./install.sh
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
deleted file mode 100644
index f47b6be..0000000
--- a/VERSION
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-MsSpec-1.6
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/install.sh b/src/install.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/src/msspec/__init__.py b/src/msspec/__init__.py
index 01ed571..2ebfb1e 100644
--- a/src/msspec/__init__.py
+++ b/src/msspec/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
-# Auto-generated file, do not edit
-__version__ = "1.6"
+from .version import __version__
 __sha__ = "$Id$"
diff --git a/src/msspec/msspecgui/__init__.py b/src/msspec/msspecgui/__init__.py
index 01ed571..ae33b9a 100644
--- a/src/msspec/msspecgui/__init__.py
+++ b/src/msspec/msspecgui/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
-# Auto-generated file, do not edit
-__version__ = "1.6"
+from ..version import __version__
 __sha__ = "$Id$"
diff --git a/src/msspec/spec/fortran/Makefile b/src/msspec/spec/fortran/Makefile
index 98dfc69..d7cebbb 100644
--- a/src/msspec/spec/fortran/Makefile
+++ b/src/msspec/spec/fortran/Makefile
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ pybinding: libspec.so
 
 libspec.so: $(objects) main.f
 	@echo "building Python binding..."      
-	@f2py3 -I. $(objects) -c -m libspec main.f
-	#f2py3 -I. $(objects) --debug-capi --debug -c -m libspec main.f
+	#@f2py3 -I. $(objects) -c -m libspec main.f
+	@f2py3 -I. $(objects) --debug-capi --debug -c -m libspec main.f
 	@cp libspec.cpython*.so ../
 	@mv libspec.cpython*.so libspec.so
 
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ exe: $(objects) prog.f
 $(objects): $(objects_src)
 	@echo "compiling subroutines and functions..."
 	#$(COMP) -cpp -fPIC -O2 -ffast-math -mcmodel=large -fdefault-real-4 -c $^
-	@$(COMP) $(OPTS) -fPIC -mcmodel=large -c $^
+	#@$(COMP) $(OPTS) -fPIC -mcmodel=large -c $^
+	@$(COMP) $(OPTS) -fPIC -c $^
 
 clean:
 	@echo "cleaning..."