diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 43a531c1..6fb4ff0b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
  - added osc my ... pkg/prj/req  shorthand commands
  - add 'osc se' alias for 'osc search -e'
  - add -b -m -M to 'osc search'
+ - hack for _help_preprocess_cmd_option_list to survive setup.py build
 
 0.121.jw02
  - made rresults an alias for results. python decorators are a strange concept...
diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index b1323911..2fdd6dec 100755
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -132,9 +132,6 @@ class Osc(cmdln.Cmdln):
         self.conf = conf
         self.options.verbose = conf.config['verbose']
         conf.exclude_glob = conf.config['exclude_glob'].split()
-        #if conf.config['version']:
-        #    print "osc-%s" % __version__
-        #    exit
 
 
     def get_cmd_help(self, cmdname):
@@ -147,6 +144,9 @@ class Osc(cmdln.Cmdln):
     # overridden from Cmdln in order to use config values in options' help text
     def _help_preprocess_cmd_option_list(self, help, cmdname=None):
         help = cmdln.Cmdln._help_preprocess_cmd_option_list(self, help, cmdname)
+	# FIXME: setup.py build has no useful conf.config here.
+	if not conf.config.has_key('request_list_days'): 
+	    conf.config['request_list_days'] = 30
         return help % conf.config
 
     def do_init(self, subcmd, opts, project, package=None):