diff --git a/tools/mktarball.sh b/tools/mktarball.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ea1a8ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/mktarball.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# $1: path to fs_get_stats program
+# $2: start dir
+# $3: subdir to tar up (from $2)
+# $4: target tar name
+# $5: target tarball name (usually $(3).bz2)
+
+if [ $# -ne 5 ]; then
+    echo "Error: wrong number of arguments in cmd: $0 $* "
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+fs_get_stats=`readlink -f $1`
+start_dir=`readlink -f $2`
+dir_to_tar=$3
+target_tar=`readlink -f $4`
+target_tarball=`readlink -f $5`
+
+cd $2
+
+#tar --no-recursion -cvf ${target_tar} ${dir_to_tar}
+rm ${target_tar} > /dev/null 2>&1
+
+# do dirs first
+subdirs=`find ${dir_to_tar} -type d -print`
+files=`find ${dir_to_tar} \! -type d -print`
+for f in ${subdirs} ${files} ; do
+    curr_perms=`stat -c 0%a $f`
+    [ -d "$f" ] && is_dir=1 || is_dir=0
+    new_info=`${fs_get_stats} ${curr_perms} ${is_dir} ${f}`
+    new_uid=`echo ${new_info} | awk '{print $1;}'`
+    new_gid=`echo ${new_info} | awk '{print $2;}'`
+    new_perms=`echo ${new_info} | awk '{print $3;}'`
+#    echo "$f: dir: $is_dir curr: $curr_perms uid: $new_uid gid: $new_gid "\
+#         "perms: $new_perms"
+    tar --no-recursion --numeric-owner --owner $new_uid \
+        --group $new_gid --mode $new_perms -p -rf ${target_tar} ${f}
+done
+
+if [ $? -eq 0 ] ; then
+    bzip2 -c ${target_tar} > ${target_tarball}
+    success=$?
+    [ $success -eq 0 ] || rm -f ${target_tarball}
+    rm -f ${target_tar}
+    exit $success
+fi
+
+rm -f ${target_tar}
+exit 1