diff --git a/pmd/bin/build.xml b/pmd/bin/build.xml
index 85bb9dd66e..30c0d402a5 100644
--- a/pmd/bin/build.xml
+++ b/pmd/bin/build.xml
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 	<property name="dir.src" value="src/" />
 	<property name="dir.build" value="build/" />
 	<property name="dir.target" value="target/" />
+	<property name="dir.release" value="release/" />
 	<property name="dir.rulesets" value="rulesets/" />
 	<property name="dir.regress" value="regress/" />
 	<property name="version" value="4.2.5" />
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@
 	<target name="delete" description="Deletes the build directory and the pmd-x.x jar file.">
 		<delete dir="${dir.build}" />
 		<delete dir="${dir.target}" />
+		<delete dir="${dir.release}" />
 		<delete file="${dir.lib}/pmd-${version}.jar" />
 		<delete file="${dir.lib}/pmd-src-${version}.jar" />
 		<delete file="${dir.lib}/pmd-test-${version}.jar" />
diff --git a/pmd/etc/generate_snapshot.sh b/pmd/etc/generate_snapshot.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4d04b5e715
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd/etc/generate_snapshot.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+version=`grep "<version>4.2" ../pom.xml   |sed -e "s/^.*>4/4/g" -e "s/<\/.*//g"`
+stripped_version=`grep "<version>4.2" ../pom.xml   |sed -e "s/^.*>4/4/g" -e "s/<\/.*//g" -e "s/\-SNAPSHOT//g"`
+
+pmd_top_dir=`pwd`/../release
+pmd_bin_dir=$pmd_top_dir/pmd-$version
+pmd_src_dir=$pmd_top_dir/pmd-$version
+
+mkdir $pmd_top_dir
+
+echo
+echo "Rebuilding everything"
+echo
+
+cd ..
+ant -f bin/build.xml dist
+
+./docs.sh all
+
+cd etc
+
+echo
+echo "generating binary file $pmd_top_dir/pmd-bin-$version.zip"
+echo
+
+rm -rf $pmd_bin_dir
+rm -f $pmd_top_dir/pmd-bin-$version.zip
+mkdir -p $pmd_bin_dir/etc
+mkdir $pmd_bin_dir/bin
+mkdir $pmd_bin_dir/lib
+mkdir -p $pmd_bin_dir/java14/lib
+mkdir $pmd_bin_dir/java14/bin
+cp ../LICENSE.txt changelog.txt $pmd_bin_dir/etc
+cd ../bin/
+cp pmd.* build.xml cpd.sh cpdgui.bat designer.* $pmd_bin_dir/bin
+cd ../etc/
+cp ../java14/lib/*.jar $pmd_bin_dir/java14/lib/
+cp ../java14/bin/cpd* ../java14/bin/pmd.* ../java14/bin/designer.* $pmd_bin_dir/java14/bin/
+chmod 755 $pmd_bin_dir/java14/bin/*
+cp ../lib/pmd-$stripped_version.jar ../lib/asm-3.1.jar ../lib/jaxen-1.1.1.jar ../lib/junit-4.4.jar $pmd_bin_dir/lib/
+mkdir $pmd_bin_dir/etc/xslt
+cp xslt/*.xslt xslt/*.js xslt/*.gif xslt/*.css $pmd_bin_dir/etc/xslt/
+cp -R ../target/docs $pmd_bin_dir
+cd $pmd_top_dir
+zip -q -r pmd-bin-$version.zip pmd-$version/
+cd -
+
+echo
+echo "binary package generated"
+echo
+
+release_tag=`echo $version|sed -e "s/\./_/g"`
+
+echo "generating source file $pmd_top_dir/pmd-src-$version.zip"
+
+rm -rf $pmd_src_dir
+rm -f $pmd_top_dir/pmd-src-$version.zip
+cd ../bin/
+ant jarsrc
+cd ..
+svn -q export https://pmd.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pmd/branches/pmd/4.2.x $pmd_src_dir
+cp lib/pmd-src-$stripped_version.jar $pmd_src_dir/lib/
+cp lib/pmd-$stripped_version.jar $pmd_src_dir/lib
+cp -R target/docs $pmd_src_dir
+rm -f $pmd_src_dir/etc/clover.license
+cd $pmd_top_dir
+zip -q -r pmd-src-$version.zip pmd-$version/
+cd -
+
+echo
+echo "source package generated"
+echo