diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index beb38092..c5b19d74 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
 *.pg
 *.tp
 .depend
-evil-autoloads.el
+/evil-autoloads.el
+/evil-pkg.el
 test-results.txt
 typescript
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c5621ac8..6dd8f254 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
-SHELL = /bin/sh
 EMACS ?= emacs
 SED ?= sed
 FILES = $(filter-out evil-test-helpers.el evil-tests.el evil-pkg.el,$(wildcard evil*.el))
-VERSION := $(shell $(SED) -ne '/define-package/,$$p' evil-pkg.el | $(SED) -ne '/^\s*"[[:digit:]]\+\(\.[[:digit:]]\+\)*"\s*$$/ s/^.*"\(.*\)".*$$/\1/p')
+VERSION := $(shell $(SED) -n '/^;\+ \+Version: *\(.*\)/{s//\1/p;q}' evil.el)
 PROFILER =
-DOC = doc
 TAG =
 EASK ?= eask
 
@@ -52,8 +50,7 @@ emacs:
 		--eval "(evil-tests-initialize '(${TAG}) '(${PROFILER}) t)"
 
 # Load Evil in a terminal Emacs and run all tests.
-term: terminal
-terminal:
+term terminal:
 	$(EASK) run command terminal
 
 # Run all tests with profiler.
@@ -66,8 +63,12 @@ profiler:
 indent: clean
 	$(EASK) run command indent
 
+evil-pkg.el: evil.el
+	$(EMACS) --batch -l package $^ \
+		--eval "(package-generate-description-file (package-buffer-info) \"$@\")"
+
 # Create an ELPA package.
-elpa:
+elpa: evil-pkg.el
 	$(EASK) package
 
 # Change the version using make VERSION=x.y.z
diff --git a/evil-pkg.el b/evil-pkg.el
deleted file mode 100644
index 8a170ae8..00000000
--- a/evil-pkg.el
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-(define-package
-  "evil"
-  "1.15.0"
-  "Extensible vi layer"
-  '((emacs "24.1")
-    (goto-chg "1.6")
-    (cl-lib "0.5"))
-  :url "https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil"
-  :keywords '("emulations"))