diff --git a/mk/linux/makedata.sh b/mk/linux/makedata.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..52bffb042
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mk/linux/makedata.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+VERSION=`autoconf -t AC_INIT | sed -e 's/[^:]*:[^:]*:[^:]*:[^:]*:\([^:]*\):.*/\1/g'`
+RELEASENAME=megaglest-data
+RELEASEDIR="`pwd`/release/$RELEASENAME-$VERSION"
+
+echo "Creating data package in $RELEASEDIR"
+
+rm -rf $RELEASEDIR
+mkdir -p $RELEASEDIR
+# copy sources
+pushd "`pwd`/../../data/glest_game"
+find data/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+find docs/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+find maps/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+find scenarios/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+find screenshots/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+find techs/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+find tilesets/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+find tutorials/ \( -name "*.*" \) -exec cp -p --parents "{}" $RELEASEDIR ';'
+popd
+
+pushd $RELEASEDIR
+find -name "\.svn" -exec rm -rf {} \;
+popd
+
+pushd release
+PACKAGE="$RELEASENAME-$VERSION.tar.bz2"
+echo "creating $PACKAGE"
+
+pushd $RELEASEDIR
+tar -c --bzip2 -f "../$PACKAGE" *
+popd