diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 7c8b7b590f..d32a3d189c 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -1 +1 @@
-nibabel/version.py export-subst
+nibabel/COMMIT_INFO.txt export-subst
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b95bdbd727..678af3bfa1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -224,4 +224,10 @@ bdist_mpkg:
 	$(PYTHON) tools/mpkg_wrapper.py setup.py install
 
 
+# Print out info for possible install methods
+check_version_info:
+	$(PYTHON) tools/test_pkg_install_info.py nibabel
+
+
 .PHONY: orig-src pylint
+
diff --git a/nibabel/__init__.py b/nibabel/__init__.py
index 14fe6075ec..c917ad5a69 100644
--- a/nibabel/__init__.py
+++ b/nibabel/__init__.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 #
 ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ##
 
+import os
+
 from .version import __version__, long_description as __doc__
 __doc__ += """
  Quickstart
@@ -56,4 +58,5 @@
 test = Tester().test
 del Tester
 
-from .info import get_pkg_info
+from .info import get_pkg_info as _get_pkg_info
+get_info = lambda : _get_pkg_info(os.path.dirname(__file__))
diff --git a/nibabel/info.py b/nibabel/info.py
index e2978620da..2ce4d23f71 100644
--- a/nibabel/info.py
+++ b/nibabel/info.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import os
+import sys
 import subprocess
 from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
 
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ def pkg_commit_hash(pkg_path):
     * A written commit hash value in ``install_hash`
     * git's output, if we are in a git repository
 
-    If all these fail, we raise an error
+    If all these fail, we return a not-found placeholder tuple
 
     Parameters
     ----------
@@ -54,15 +55,29 @@ def pkg_commit_hash(pkg_path):
     repo_commit, _ = proc.communicate()
     if repo_commit:
         return 'repository', repo_commit.strip()
-    raise RuntimeError('Cannot find hash information')
+    return '(none found)', '<not found>'
 
 
 def get_pkg_info(pkg_path):
-    ''' Return string describing the context of this package
+    ''' Return dict describing the context of this package
 
-    '''
-    return '''Configuration for %s:
-
-Commit hash source: %s
-Commit hash: %s''' % (pkg_path,) + pkg_commit_hash(pkg_path)
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    pkg_path : str
+       path containing __init__.py for package
 
+    Returns
+    -------
+    context : dict
+       with named parameters of interest
+    '''
+    src, hsh = pkg_commit_hash(pkg_path)
+    import numpy
+    return dict(
+        pkg_path=pkg_path,
+        commit_source=src,
+        commit_hash=hsh,
+        sys_version=sys.version,
+        sys_executable=sys.executable,
+        sys_platform=sys.platform,
+        np_version=numpy.__version__)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 89ce7cb303..48249ee05e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ def run(self):
         # We write the installation commit even if it's empty
         cfg_parser = ConfigParser()
         cfg_parser.read(os.path.join('nibabel', 'COMMIT_INFO.txt'))
-        cfg_parser.set('commit hash', 'install', repo_commit)
+        cfg_parser.set('commit hash', 'install_hash', repo_commit)
         out_pth = pjoin(self.build_lib, 'nibabel', 'COMMIT_INFO.txt')
         cfg_parser.write(open(out_pth, 'wt'))
 
@@ -81,7 +81,8 @@ def main(**extra_args):
                           'nibabel.tests'],
           package_data = {'nibabel':
                           [pjoin('tests', 'data', '*'),
-                           pjoin('dicom', 'tests', 'data', '*')]},
+                           pjoin('dicom', 'tests', 'data', '*'),
+                          ]},
           scripts      = [pjoin('bin', 'parrec2nii')],
           cmdclass = cmdclass,
           **extra_args
diff --git a/tools/test_pkg_install_info.py b/tools/test_pkg_install_info.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..82a1ea162f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/test_pkg_install_info.py
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+''' Test nibabel version options
+
+Fairly unix specific because of use of 'tar'
+'''
+
+import os
+import sys
+import shutil
+import tempfile
+from subprocess import call
+from functools import partial
+
+my_call = partial(call, shell=True)
+
+py_lib_sdir = 'pylib'
+
+def test_print(mod_name, pkg_path):
+    os.chdir(os.path.expanduser('~'))
+    my_call('python -c "import sys; sys.path.insert(0,\'%s\'); '
+            'import %s; print %s.get_info()"' % (pkg_path,
+                                                 mod_name,
+                                                 mod_name))
+
+
+def run_tests(mod_name, repo_path, install_path):
+    site_pkgs_path = os.path.join(install_path, py_lib_sdir)
+    py_lib_locs = ' --install-purelib=%s --install-platlib=%s' % (
+        site_pkgs_path, site_pkgs_path)
+    # first test archive
+    os.chdir(repo_path)
+    my_call('git archive --format tar -o %s/test.tar master' % install_path)
+    os.chdir(install_path)
+    my_call('tar xf test.tar')
+    my_call('python setup.py --quiet install --prefix=%s %s' % (install_path,
+                                                                py_lib_locs))
+    test_print(mod_name, site_pkgs_path)
+
+    # remove installation
+    shutil.rmtree(site_pkgs_path)
+    # now test install into a directory from the repository
+    os.chdir(repo_path)
+    my_call('python setup.py --quiet install --prefix=%s %s' % (install_path,
+                                                                py_lib_locs))
+    test_print(mod_name, site_pkgs_path)
+
+    # test from development tree
+    test_print(mod_name, repo_path)
+    return
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    try:
+        mod_name = sys.argv[1]
+    except IndexError:
+        raise OSError("Need module name")
+    try:
+        repo_path = sys.argv[2]
+    except IndexError:
+        repo_path = os.path.abspath(os.getcwd())
+    if not os.path.isfile(os.path.join(repo_path, 'setup.py')):
+        raise OSError('Need setup.py in repo path %s' % repo_path)
+    if not os.path.isdir(os.path.join(repo_path, mod_name)):
+        raise OSError('Need package % in repo path %s' % (mod_name, repo_path))
+    os.chdir(repo_path)
+    install_path = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+    try:
+        run_tests(mod_name, repo_path, install_path)
+    finally:
+        shutil.rmtree(install_path)