diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index e59d20ade..6d0d23242 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,53 +1,59 @@
 # Rakefile for Puppet -*- ruby -*-
 
 $LOAD_PATH << File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'tasks')
 
 require 'rake'
 require 'rake/packagetask'
 require 'rake/gempackagetask'
 require 'rspec'
 require "rspec/core/rake_task"
 
 module Puppet
-    PUPPETVERSION = File.read('lib/puppet.rb')[/PUPPETVERSION *= *'(.*)'/,1] or fail "Couldn't find PUPPETVERSION"
+    %x{which git &> /dev/null}
+    if $?.success? and File.exist?('.git')
+        # remove the git hash from git describe string
+        PUPPETVERSION=%x{git describe}.chomp.gsub('-','.').split('.')[0..3].join('.')
+    else
+        PUPPETVERSION=File.read('lib/puppet.rb')[/PUPPETVERSION *= *'(.*)'/,1] or fail "Couldn't find PUPPETVERSION"
+    end
 end
 
 Dir['tasks/**/*.rake'].each { |t| load t }
 
 FILES = FileList[
     '[A-Z]*',
     'install.rb',
     'bin/**/*',
     'sbin/**/*',
     'lib/**/*',
     'conf/**/*',
     'man/**/*',
     'examples/**/*',
     'ext/**/*',
     'tasks/**/*',
     'test/**/*',
     'spec/**/*'
 ]
 
 Rake::PackageTask.new("puppet", Puppet::PUPPETVERSION) do |pkg|
     pkg.package_dir = 'pkg'
     pkg.need_tar_gz = true
     pkg.package_files = FILES.to_a
 end
 
 task :default do
     sh %{rake -T}
 end
 
 desc "Create the tarball and the gem - use when releasing"
 task :puppetpackages => [:create_gem, :package]
 
 RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new do |t|
     t.pattern ='spec/{unit,integration}/**/*.rb'
     t.fail_on_error = true
 end
 
 desc "Run the unit tests"
 task :unit do
   Dir.chdir("test") { sh "rake" }
 end