diff --git a/gallery_dl/version.py b/gallery_dl/version.py
index e6913b0b..e0aaffb6 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/version.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/version.py
@@ -6,5 +6,5 @@
 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
 # published by the Free Software Foundation.
 
-__version__ = "1.30.4"
+__version__ = "1.30.5-dev"
 __variant__ = None
diff --git a/scripts/util.py b/scripts/util.py
index fcbf8265..6d926200 100644
--- a/scripts/util.py
+++ b/scripts/util.py
@@ -27,6 +27,14 @@ def open(path, mode="r"):
     return builtins.open(path, mode, encoding="utf-8", newline="\n")
 
 
+def git(command, *args):
+    import subprocess
+    return subprocess.Popen(
+        ["git", command, *args],
+        stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+    ).communicate()[0].strip().decode()
+
+
 class lazy():
 
     def __init__(self, path):