diff --git a/_updateversion.py b/_updateversion.py
index d77a0be47..9ae7ad0cc 100644
--- a/_updateversion.py
+++ b/_updateversion.py
@@ -1,16 +1,15 @@
 #!/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')
+_HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 
 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")
+    version_py = os.path.join(path, 'tofu', 'version.py')
     try:
         version_git = subprocess.check_output(["git",
                                                "describe"]).rstrip().decode()
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 23e3c2e42..5f45f94c0 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -18,7 +18,10 @@
 from Cython.Distutils import build_ext
 import numpy as np
 # ...
-import _updateversion as up
+# Remove _updateversion import due to build-time dependency
+#   => updateversion defined in here for commodity
+#   => find a cleaner solution later
+# import _updateversion as up
 # ... for `clean` command
 from distutils.command.clean import clean as Clean
 
@@ -143,6 +146,26 @@ def check_for_openmp(cc_var):
 
 # == Getting tofu version =====================================================
 _HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+
+
+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, 'tofu', 'version.py')
+    try:
+        version_git = subprocess.check_output(["git",
+                                               "describe"]).rstrip().decode()
+    except Exception as err:
+        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
@@ -163,7 +186,7 @@ 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:
diff --git a/tofu/version.py b/tofu/version.py
index f16ec2709..e5dd80cc9 100644
--- a/tofu/version.py
+++ b/tofu/version.py
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 # Do not edit, pipeline versioning governed by git tags!
-__version__ = '1.4.2-a4'
+__version__ = '1.4.2-a4-5-g9b404aa'