diff --git a/contrib/update_version.sh b/contrib/update_version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ab2674a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/update_version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+ROOTDIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+git describe --abbrev=8 --dirty | sed 's/v\([^-]*\)-\([^-]*\)-\(.*\)/\1.dev\2.\3/' > $ROOTDIR/.version
+cat $ROOTDIR/.version
+echo "# osmo-gsm-tester version.
+# Automatically generated by update_version.sh.
+# Gets imported by __init__.py.
+
+_version = '$(cat $ROOTDIR/.version)'" \
+  > $ROOTDIR/src/osmo_gsm_tester/_version.py