diff --git a/java/external/build.xml b/java/external/build.xml
index e8ed15c..2a12f39 100644
--- a/java/external/build.xml
+++ b/java/external/build.xml
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@
 -->
 <project name="xml-commons" default="jar" basedir=".">
 
+  <property name="name" value="xml-commons"/>
+  <property name="version" value="1.0"/>
+  <property name="project.name" value="${name}-${version}"/> 
+
   <property name="external-module" value="JAXP 1.1, DOM2, SAX2, SAX2-ext 1.0" />
   <property name="src.dir" value="src" />
   <property name="docs.dir" value="xdocs" />
@@ -50,6 +54,25 @@
     </copy>
    </target>
 
+  <target name="exportsrc" depends="prepare"
+    description="Create a simple distribution of sources">
+    <!-- Note: this not a complete public distro layout yet! -sc -->
+
+    <patternset id="external-srcs" >
+    <!-- Relative to external/src, which is ${src.dir}  -->
+      <include name="org/"/>
+      <include name="javax/"/>
+    </patternset>
+
+    <tar tarfile="${build.dir}/${project.name}-src.tar" >
+      <tarfileset dir="${src.dir}">
+        <patternset refid="external-srcs"/>
+      </tarfileset>
+    </tar>
+    <gzip src="${build.dir}/${project.name}-src.tar" zipfile="${build.dir}/${project.name}-src.tar.gz"/>
+    <delete file="${build.dir}/${project.name}-src.tar" />
+  </target>
+
   <target name="clean" 
       description="Clean the output build area">
     <delete file="${api.jar}"/>