diff --git a/release-tool b/release-tool
index 0df84e34..b08caadb 100755
--- a/release-tool
+++ b/release-tool
@@ -614,9 +614,19 @@ build() {
     if ${BUILD_SOURCE_TARBALL}; then
         logInfo "Creating source tarball..."
         local app_name_lower="$(echo "$APP_NAME" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')"
-        TARBALL_NAME="${app_name_lower}-${RELEASE_NAME}-src.tar.xz"
-        git archive --format=tar "$TAG_NAME" --prefix="${app_name_lower}-${RELEASE_NAME}/" \
-            | xz -6 > "${OUTPUT_DIR}/${TARBALL_NAME}"
+        local prefix="${app_name_lower}-${RELEASE_NAME}"
+        local tarball_name="${prefix}-src.tar"
+
+        git archive --format=tar "$TAG_NAME" --prefix="${prefix}/" --output="${OUTPUT_DIR}/${tarball_name}"
+
+        # add .version file to tar
+        mkdir "${prefix}"
+        echo -n ${RELEASE_NAME} > "${prefix}/.version"
+        tar --append --file="${OUTPUT_DIR}/${tarball_name}" "${prefix}/.version"
+        rm "${prefix}/.version"
+        rmdir "${prefix}" 2> /dev/null
+
+        xz -6 "${OUTPUT_DIR}/${tarball_name}"
     fi
 
     if [ -e "${OUTPUT_DIR}/build-release" ]; then