diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f7e4859..05e693b 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,4 +2,6 @@ build
 .project
 .pydevproject
 .cproject
-*.py[co]
\ No newline at end of file
+*.py[co]
+MANIFEST
+dist
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c7c7a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+include README.rst
+include VERSION_INFO
+include genversion.sh
+recursive-include tests *
+recursive-include examples *.py
+recursive-include docs *
+recursive-include src *
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d8bb200..321d685 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 print version
 
 setup( name             = 'pyxrootd',
-       version          = version,
+       version          = version.strip(),
        author           = 'XRootD Developers',
        author_email     = 'xrootd-dev@slac.stanford.edu',
        url              = 'http://xrootd.org',