diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f6526d1c..a86da898 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -23,3 +23,7 @@ MANIFEST
 /.ninja_*
 /*.ninja
 /docs/.build
+*.py[co]
+*.egg-info
+*~
+.DS_Store
diff --git a/docs/release.rst b/docs/release.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..34e40ac9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/release.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+To release a new version of pybind11:
+
+- Update `_version.py` (set release version, remove 'dev')
+- `git add` and `git commit`.
+- `python setup.py sdist upload`.
+- `python setup.py bdist_wheel upload`.
+- `git tag -a X.X -m 'Release tag comment'`.
+- Update `_version.py` (add 'dev' and increment minor).
+- `git add` and `git commit`. `git push`. `git push --tags`.
+
+The remote for the last `git push --tags` should be the main repository for
+pybind11.
diff --git a/pybind11/__init__.py b/pybind11/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4f1853b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pybind11/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from ._version import version_info, __version__
diff --git a/pybind11/_version.py b/pybind11/_version.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..15df25bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pybind11/_version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+version_info = (1, 2, 'dev0')
+__version__ = '.'.join(map(str, version_info))
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 2f02e6a3..ae1ca8bf 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,16 +3,17 @@
 # Setup script for PyPI; use CMakeFile.txt to build the example application
 
 from setuptools import setup
+from pybind11 import __version__
 
 setup(
     name='pybind11',
-    version='1.0',
+    version=__version__,
     description='Seamless operability between C++11 and Python',
     author='Wenzel Jakob',
     author_email='wenzel@inf.ethz.ch',
     url='https://github.com/wjakob/pybind11',
     download_url='https://github.com/wjakob/pybind11/tarball/v1.0',
-    packages=[],
+    packages=['pybind11'],
     license='BSD',
     headers=[
         'include/pybind11/attr.h',