diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b46ee9c..0f044c9 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,19 +1,10 @@
-import os
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
-__version__ = None
-pth = os.path.join(
-    os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)),
-    "ngmix",
-    "_version.py")
-with open(pth, 'r') as fp:
-    exec(fp.read())
-
 setup(
     name="ngmix",
     author="Erin Sheldon",
     url="https://github.com/esheldon/ngmix",
     description="fast 2-d gaussian mixtures for modeling astronomical images",
-    packages=find_packages(exclude=["mdet_tests"]),
-    version=__version__,
+    packages=find_packages(exclude=["mdet_tests", "ngmix.tests"]),
+    version='__version__',
 )