diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ae39c52b11377d2cf787860dd6c6b5ea74d703b9..00fbff6a2ca9169a8fa23ba501ab90d2922eb8ac 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -38,3 +38,5 @@ dependency-reduced-pom.xml
 .ensime_lucene
 checkpoint
 derby.log
+dist/
+spark-*-bin.tar.gz
diff --git a/make-distribution.sh b/make-distribution.sh
index 0116215163bc580b9e2aeee68036fcba2110641d..4374e0e8c4e06d0f64364a341de06f08047b356b 100755
--- a/make-distribution.sh
+++ b/make-distribution.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 #
 # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@
 # so it is completely self contained.
 # It does not contain source or *.class files.
 #
+# Arguments
+#   (none): Creates dist/ directory
+#      tgz: Additionally creates spark-$VERSION-bin.tar.gz
+#
 # Recommended deploy/testing procedure (standalone mode):
 # 1) Rsync / deploy the dist/ dir to one host
 # 2) cd to deploy dir; ./bin/start-master.sh
@@ -38,8 +42,14 @@ DISTDIR="$FWDIR/dist"
 
 # Get version from SBT
 export TERM=dumb   # Prevents color codes in SBT output
-VERSION=$($FWDIR/sbt/sbt "show version" | tail -1 | cut -f 2)
-echo "Making distribution for Spark $VERSION in $DISTDIR..."
+VERSION=$($FWDIR/sbt/sbt "show version" | tail -1 | cut -f 2 | sed 's/^\([a-zA-Z0-9.-]*\).*/\1/')
+
+if [ "$1" == "tgz" ]; then
+	echo "Making spark-$VERSION-bin.tar.gz"
+else
+	echo "Making distribution for Spark $VERSION in $DISTDIR..."
+fi
+
 
 # Build fat JAR
 $FWDIR/sbt/sbt "repl/assembly"
@@ -56,3 +66,11 @@ cp $FWDIR/repl/target/*.jar "$DISTDIR/jars/"
 cp -r "$FWDIR/bin" "$DISTDIR"
 cp -r "$FWDIR/conf" "$DISTDIR"
 cp "$FWDIR/run" "$FWDIR/spark-shell" "$DISTDIR"
+
+
+if [ "$1" == "tgz" ]; then
+  TARDIR="$FWDIR/spark-$VERSION"
+  cp -r $DISTDIR $TARDIR
+  tar -zcf spark-$VERSION-bin.tar.gz -C $FWDIR spark-$VERSION
+  rm -rf $TARDIR
+fi