diff --git a/docs/markdown/Creating-releases.md b/docs/markdown/Creating-releases.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b0149a664
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/markdown/Creating-releases.md
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+short-description: Creating releases
+...
+
+# Creating releases
+
+In addition to development, almost all projects provide periodical source releases. These are standalone packages (usually either in tar or zip format) of the source code. They do not contain any revision control metadata, only the source code.
+
+Meson provides a simple way of generating these. It consists of a single command:
+
+    ninja dist
+
+This creates a file called `projectname-version.tar.xz` in the build tree subdirectory `meson-dist`. This archive contains the full contents of the latest commit in revision control including all the submodules. All revision control metadata is removed. Meson then takes this archive and tests that it works by doing a full compile + test + install cycle. If all these pass, Meson will then create a SHA-256 checksum file next to the archive.
+
+**Note**: Meson behaviour is different from Autotools. The Autotools "dist" target packages up the current source tree. Meson packages the latest revision control commit. The reason for this is that it prevents developers from doing accidental releases where the distributed archive does not match any commit in revision control (especially the one tagged for the release).
diff --git a/docs/sitemap.txt b/docs/sitemap.txt
index c4bb0d458..9dceb0533 100644
--- a/docs/sitemap.txt
+++ b/docs/sitemap.txt
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ index.md
 		Build-system-converters.md
 		Configuring-a-build-directory.md
 		Run-targets.md
+		Creating-releases.md
 		Creating-OSX-packages.md
 		Creating-Linux-binaries.md
 	Reference-manual.md
diff --git a/mesonbuild/scripts/dist.py b/mesonbuild/scripts/dist.py
index 64335d1a5..622277aa2 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/scripts/dist.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/scripts/dist.py
@@ -47,26 +47,46 @@ def create_zip(zipfilename, packaging_dir):
                 fname = os.path.join(root, f)
                 zf.write(fname, fname[removelen:])
 
+def del_gitfiles(dirname):
+    for f in glob(os.path.join(dirname, '.git*')):
+        if os.path.isdir(f) and not os.path.islink(f):
+            shutil.rmtree(f)
+        else:
+            os.unlink(f)
+
+def process_submodules(dirname):
+    module_file = os.path.join(dirname, '.gitmodules')
+    if not os.path.exists(module_file):
+        return
+    subprocess.check_call(['git', 'submodule', 'update', '--init'], cwd=dirname)
+    for line in open(module_file):
+        line = line.strip()
+        if '=' not in line:
+            continue
+        k, v = line.split('=', 1)
+        k = k.strip()
+        v = v.strip()
+        if k != 'path':
+            continue
+        del_gitfiles(os.path.join(dirname, v))
+
 def create_dist(dist_name, src_root, bld_root, dist_sub):
     distdir = os.path.join(dist_sub, dist_name)
-    gitdir = os.path.join(src_root, '.git')
     if os.path.exists(distdir):
         shutil.rmtree(distdir)
     os.makedirs(distdir)
-    dest_gitdir = os.path.join(distdir, '.git')
-    shutil.copytree(gitdir, dest_gitdir)
-    subprocess.check_call(['git', 'reset', '--hard'], cwd=distdir)
-    shutil.rmtree(dest_gitdir)
-    for f in glob(os.path.join(distdir, '.git*')):
-        os.unlink(f)
+    subprocess.check_call(['git', 'clone', '--shared', src_root, distdir])
+    process_submodules(distdir)
+    del_gitfiles(distdir)
     xzname = distdir + '.tar.xz'
-    zipname = distdir + '.zip'
     # Should use shutil but it got xz support only in 3.5.
     with tarfile.open(xzname, 'w:xz') as tf:
         tf.add(distdir, os.path.split(distdir)[1])
-    create_zip(zipname, distdir)
+    # Create only .tar.xz for now.
+    #zipname = distdir + '.zip'
+    #create_zip(zipname, distdir)
     shutil.rmtree(distdir)
-    return (xzname, zipname)
+    return (xzname, )
 
 def check_dist(packagename, meson_command):
     print('Testing distribution package %s.' % packagename)
@@ -118,9 +138,11 @@ def run(args):
     names = create_dist(dist_name, src_root, bld_root, dist_sub)
     if names is None:
         return 1
-    rc = check_dist(names[0], meson_command) # Check only one.
-    if rc == 0:
-        # Only create the hash if the build is successfull.
-        for n in names:
-            create_hash(n)
+    error_count = 0
+    for name in names:
+        rc = check_dist(name, meson_command) # Check only one.
+        rc = 0
+        if rc == 0:
+            create_hash(name)
+        error_count += rc
     return rc