diff --git a/bin/make_dist_tarball.sh b/bin/make_dist_tarball.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..d7d8bdafff4fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/make_dist_tarball.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#!/bin/sh -e
+
+if [ ! -d .git ]; then
+    echo "no .git present.  run this from the base dir of the git checkout."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+bindir=`dirname $0`
+
+version=$1
+[ -z "$version" ] && version=`git describe | cut -c 2-`
+outfile="ceph-$version"
+
+# update submodules
+echo "updating submodules..."
+force=$(if git submodule usage 2>&1 | grep --quiet 'update.*--force'; then echo --force ; fi)
+if ! git submodule sync || ! git submodule update $force --init --recursive; then
+    echo "Error: could not initialize submodule projects"
+    echo "  Network connectivity might be required."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# clean out old cruft...
+echo "cleanup..."
+rm -f $outfile.tar $outfile.tar.gz
+
+# build new tarball
+echo "building tarball..."
+$bindir/git-archive-all.sh --prefix ceph-$version/ \
+			   --verbose \
+			   --ignore corpus \
+			   $outfile.tar
+gzip -9 $outfile.tar
+
+echo "done."