diff --git a/Makefile.local b/Makefile.local
index 586cdf75..314238ef 100644
--- a/Makefile.local
+++ b/Makefile.local
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ update-versions:
 	sed -i -e "s/^__VERSION__[[:blank:]]*=.*$$/__VERSION__ = \'${VERSION}\'/" \
 	    -e "s/^SOVERSION[[:blank:]]*=.*$$/SOVERSION = \'${LIBNOTMUCH_VERSION_MAJOR}\'/" \
 	    ${PV_FILE}
+	cp version bindings/python-cffi
 
 # We invoke make recursively only to force ordering of our phony
 # targets in the case of parallel invocation of make (-j).
diff --git a/bindings/python-cffi/setup.py b/bindings/python-cffi/setup.py
index 1effcfc6..b0060835 100644
--- a/bindings/python-cffi/setup.py
+++ b/bindings/python-cffi/setup.py
@@ -1,14 +1,8 @@
-import pathlib
-
 import setuptools
 
-
-THIS_FILE = pathlib.Path(__file__).absolute()
-PROJECT_ROOT = THIS_FILE.parent.parent.parent
-with open(PROJECT_ROOT.joinpath('version')) as fp:
+with open('version') as fp:
     VERSION = fp.read().strip()
 
-
 setuptools.setup(
     name='notmuch2',
     version=VERSION,
diff --git a/bindings/python-cffi/version b/bindings/python-cffi/version
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..71971d9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindings/python-cffi/version
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.30~rc2