diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9101894238..b569bd36b8 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ config.log
 /ia64_hpux*
 /ia64_linux*
 /obj
+/packages
 /parisc_linux*
 /ppc_darwin*
 /ppc_nbsd*
diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index 6ca97176e8..867a3af325 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -792,8 +792,15 @@ clean2:
 	-/bin/rm -rf ${TOP_INCDIR} ${TOP_LIBDIR} ${TOP_JLIBDIR}
 	-/bin/rm -rf libafs_tree ${SYS_NAME}
 
+dist:
+	mkdir -p packages
+	./build-tools/make-release --dir=packages HEAD
+
+srpm:
+	(cd packages && ../src/packaging/RedHat/makesrpm.pl *-src.tar.bz2 *-doc.tar.bz2)
+
 distclean: clean
-	/bin/rm -rf lib include
+	/bin/rm -rf lib include packages
 	/bin/rm -f config.log config.cache config.status \
 	src/config/afsconfig.h src/config/stamp-h1 \
 	src/libafs/Makefile \
diff --git a/build-tools/make-release b/build-tools/make-release
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..e2b235b2f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-tools/make-release
@@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+use Getopt::Long;
+use Pod::Usage;
+use File::Path;
+use File::Temp;
+
+my $tag;
+my $last;
+my $tagPoint;
+my $last;
+my $outDir = ".";
+
+GetOptions("help|?" => \$help,
+	   "man" => \$man,
+	   "tagpoint=s" => \$tagPoint,
+ 	   "last=s" => \$last,
+	   "dir=s" => \$outDir) or pod2usage(2);
+
+pod2usage(1) if $help;
+pod2usage(-exitstatus => 0, -verbose => 2) if $man;
+
+my $tagName = shift;
+my $version = shift;
+
+pod2usage(2) if !defined($tagName);
+
+# Tag the repository
+
+if ($tagPoint) {
+    system ("git tag -s $tagName $tagPoint") == 0
+        or die "git tag failed with : $!";
+
+    # Push the tag upstream
+    system ("git push ssh://gerrit.openafs.org:29418/openafs tag $tagName") == 0
+    	or die "git push failed with : $!";
+}
+
+$version = `git describe --abbrev=4 $tagName`;
+chomp $version;
+$version=~s/openafs-[^-]*-//;
+$version=~s/_/./g;
+
+# Grab the tagged code into a temporary directory
+
+my $name = "openafs-".$version;
+
+my $tempDir = File::Temp::tempdir();
+system ("git archive --format=tar --prefix=$name/ $tagName ".
+	" | tar -C $tempDir -x") == 0
+    or die "Git archive failed with: $?";
+
+# Construct the ChangeLog
+if ($last) {
+    system("git log $last..$tagName > $outDir/ChangeLog");
+} else {
+    system("git log $tagName > $outDir/ChangeLog");
+}
+
+# Describe the tree
+system("git describe --abbrev=4 $tagName > $tempDir/$name/.version");
+
+# Run regen.sh to create the rest of the tree
+system ("cd $tempDir/$name && ./regen.sh") == 0
+    or die $!;
+
+# Create the documentation tarball
+system("tar -cf $outDir/$name-doc.tar -C $tempDir $name/doc") == 0
+    or die "Unable to create documentation tarball : $!";
+push @toCompress, "$outDir/$name-doc.tar";
+
+# Remove the docs directory (we've already build a tarball for it)
+File::Path::rmtree("$tempDir/$name/doc");
+
+# Create the source tarball (both .gz and .bz2)
+system("tar -cf $outDir/$name-src.tar -C $tempDir $name") == 0
+    or die "Unable to create documentation tarball : $!";
+push @toCompress, "$outDir/$name-src.tar";
+
+# Construct the diffs, and zip them
+if ($last) {
+    system("git diff $last..$tagName > $outDir/$name.diff") == 0
+       or die "Unable to create diff : $!";
+    push @toCompress, "$outDir/$name.diff";
+}
+
+my @toMD5 = @toCompress;
+
+# Compress everything that needs squashing 
+foreach my $file (@toCompress) {
+    system("gzip < $file > $file.gz") == 0
+	or die "Unable to create gzip file of '$file' : $!";
+    push @toMD5, "$file.gz";
+
+    system("bzip2 < $file > $file.bz2") == 0
+	or die "Unable to create bzip file of '$file' : $!";
+    push @toMD5, "$file.bz2";
+}
+
+foreach my $file (@toMD5) {
+    if (-x "/sbin/md5") {
+	system("/sbin/md5 -q $file > $file.md5");
+    } elsif (-x "/usr/bin/md5sum") {
+	system("/usr/bin/md5sum $file > $file.md5");
+    } else {
+	print STDERR "No md5 utiltiy found. Not producing checksums\n";
+    }
+}
+ 
+
+__END__
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+make_release - Make an OpenAFS release from git
+
+=head1 SYNOPSIS
+
+make_release [options] <tag> [<version>]
+
+ Options:
+    --help	         brief help message
+    --man	         full documentation
+    --tagpoint <object>  create new tag
+    --last <object>      generate changelog and diffs from this point
+    --dir <dir>          output results into this directory
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+make_release constructs an OpenAFS release from a local git clone. If run
+with just the standard arguments, it will extract the contents of the
+specified tag into the current directory, creating src and doc tarballs,
+gziping and bziping them, and generating md5 hashes. It will also create a
+ChangeLog file, listing all of the changes in that release.
+
+This standard behaviour may be modified by the following options
+
+=head1 OPTIONS
+
+=over 8
+
+=item B<--last> I<object>
+
+Generate the ChangeLog starting from I<object>. Also generate a 
+openafs-$version.diff file in the output directory containing all of the
+changes between I<object> and the current tag
+
+=item B<--dir> I<directory>
+
+Instead of generating all of the output in the current directory, place it
+in <directory>, which must already exist.
+
+=item B<--tagpoint> I<commit|branch>
+
+Rather than using an existing tag, create a new one on the specified commit,
+or on the tip of the specified branch. This will GPG sign the new tag, and
+push it into gerrit.
+
+=cut