I'm doing the same thing, that is I untar it and then do a
ln -s ./forrestv-p2pool-7aedd00 p2pool
then I start it with a
cd p2pool
python ./run_p2pool.py
and it shows, right at the start
fatal: Not a git repository (or any parent up to mount parent )
Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set).
2012-10-18 09:25:08.997911 p2pool (version 7aedd00)
So it finds its version even if I start if from a link
You're not doing exactly the same thing. You're cd'ing in first. Maybe this is because getcwd() from within a symlinked directory returns the original directory name?