diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a94e3bed3..723fcb56b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -70,3 +70,6 @@ doc/source/auto_examples/
 
 # do not commit nose tests files
 *.noseids
+
+# no pip wheel metadata
+pip-wheel-metadata/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/_updateversion.py b/_updateversion.py
deleted file mode 100644
index d77a0be47..000000000
--- a/_updateversion.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env/python
-# coding=utf-8
-
-import sys
-import os
-import subprocess
-
-_HERE = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)),'tofu')
-
-def updateversion(path=_HERE):
-    # Fetch version from git tags, and write to version.py
-    # Also, when git is not available (PyPi package), use stored version.py
-    version_py = os.path.join(path,"version.py")
-    try:
-        version_git = subprocess.check_output(["git",
-                                               "describe"]).rstrip().decode()
-    except:
-        with open(version_py,'r') as fh:
-            version_git = fh.read().strip().split("=")[-1].replace("'",'')
-    version_git = version_git.lower().replace('v','')
-
-    version_msg = "# Do not edit, pipeline versioning governed by git tags!"
-    with open(version_py,"w") as fh:
-        msg = "{0}__version__ = '{1}'{0}".format(os.linesep, version_git)
-        fh.write(version_msg + msg)
-    return version_git
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 23e3c2e42..b982d3917 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -17,8 +17,6 @@
 import Cython as cth
 from Cython.Distutils import build_ext
 import numpy as np
-# ...
-import _updateversion as up
 # ... for `clean` command
 from distutils.command.clean import clean as Clean
 
@@ -142,9 +140,30 @@ def check_for_openmp(cc_var):
 
 
 # == Getting tofu version =====================================================
+
 _HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
-def get_version_tofu(path=_HERE):
 
+
+def updateversion(path=_HERE):
+    # Fetch version from git tags, and write to version.py
+    # Also, when git is not available (PyPi package), use stored version.py
+    version_py = os.path.join(path, "version.py")
+    try:
+        version_git = subprocess.check_output(["git",
+                                               "describe"]).rstrip().decode()
+    except:
+        with open(version_py, 'r') as fh:
+            version_git = fh.read().strip().split("=")[-1].replace("'", '')
+    version_git = version_git.lower().replace('v', '')
+
+    version_msg = "# Do not edit, pipeline versioning governed by git tags!"
+    with open(version_py, "w") as fh:
+        msg = "{0}__version__ = '{1}'{0}".format(os.linesep, version_git)
+        fh.write(version_msg + msg)
+    return version_git
+
+
+def get_version_tofu(path=_HERE):
     # Try from git
     isgit = ".git" in os.listdir(path)
     if isgit:
@@ -163,7 +182,7 @@ def get_version_tofu(path=_HERE):
                 .decode()
             )
             if git_branch in ["master"]:
-                version_tofu = up.updateversion(os.path.join(path, "tofu"))
+                version_tofu = updateversion(os.path.join(path, "tofu"))
             else:
                 isgit = False
         except Exception:
@@ -178,6 +197,7 @@ def get_version_tofu(path=_HERE):
     version_tofu = version_tofu.lower().replace("v", "")
     return version_tofu
 
+
 version_tofu = get_version_tofu(path=_HERE)
 
 print("")