diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8c09955c0..7246f365e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-/pkg/
-/doc/
+/doc
 /rails
+*.gem
diff --git a/.manifest b/.manifest
index 00ef87ea1..994d0b559 100644
--- a/.manifest
+++ b/.manifest
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ lib/will_paginate/core_ext.rb
 lib/will_paginate/finder.rb
 lib/will_paginate/named_scope.rb
 lib/will_paginate/named_scope_patch.rb
+lib/will_paginate/version.rb
 lib/will_paginate/view_helpers.rb
 test
 test/boot.rb
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 12764cb8e..143f55beb 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -54,7 +54,11 @@ end
 desc 'Generate RDoc documentation for the will_paginate plugin.'
 Rake::RDocTask.new(:rdoc) do |rdoc|
   files = ['README.rdoc', 'LICENSE']
-  files << FileList.new('lib/**/*.rb').exclude('lib/will_paginate/named_scope*').exclude('lib/will_paginate/array.rb')
+  files << FileList.new('lib/**/*.rb').
+    exclude('lib/will_paginate/named_scope*').
+    exclude('lib/will_paginate/array.rb').
+    exclude('lib/will_paginate/version.rb')
+    
   rdoc.rdoc_files.add(files)
   rdoc.main = "README.rdoc" # page to start on
   rdoc.title = "will_paginate documentation"
diff --git a/lib/will_paginate/version.rb b/lib/will_paginate/version.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41d3e1951
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/will_paginate/version.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+module WillPaginate #:nodoc:
+  module VERSION #:nodoc:
+    MAJOR = 2
+    MINOR = 2
+    TINY  = 0
+
+    STRING = [MAJOR, MINOR, TINY].join('.')
+  end
+end