diff --git a/Makefile.dist b/Makefile.dist
deleted file mode 100644
index 40fc3f84d77cb5791e6395e0f5a567d406a05ed8..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/Makefile.dist
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,64 +0,0 @@
-VER=1.7.1
-
-
-dist-src:
-	rm -rf build
-	(mkdir build; cd build; cmake ..; make doc)
-	-rm -rf dist/flann-${VER}-src*
-	@mkdir -p dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	# src dir
-	cp -r src dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	find dist/flann-${VER}-src/src -name '*.dat' -delete
-	rm -rf dist/flann-${VER}-src/src/cpp/tests/test*
-	rm -rf dist/flann-${VER}-src/src/python/_tests
-	rm -rf dist/flann-${VER}-src/src/python/build
-	# cmake dir
-	cp -r cmake dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	# bin dir
-	cp -r bin dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	# doc dir
-	cp -r doc dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	# examples dir
-	cp -r examples dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	# test dir
-	mkdir dist/flann-${VER}-src/test
-	cp -r test/*.py test/*.cpp test/*.txt test/*.cu dist/flann-${VER}-src/test
-	cp README.md dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	cp CMakeLists.txt dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	cp COPYING dist/flann-${VER}-src
-	(cd dist; zip -r -9 flann-${VER}-src.zip flann-${VER}-src)
-
-
-dist-bin-linux-i686:
-	-rm -rf dist/flann-${VER}-linux-i686*
-	@mkdir -p dist/flann-${VER}-linux-i686
-	cp -r build/* dist/flann-${VER}-linux-i686
-	mkdir -p dist/flann-${VER}-linux-i686/doc
-	cp doc/manual.pdf dist/flann-${VER}-linux-i686/doc
-	cp README dist/flann-${VER}-linux-i686
-	cp -r data dist/flann-${VER}-linux-i686
-	-rm flann-${VER}-linux-i686.zip
-	(cd dist; zip -r -9 flann-${VER}-linux-i686.zip flann-${VER}-linux-i686)
-
-dist-bin-linux-x86_64:
-	-rm -rf dist/flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64*
-	@mkdir -p dist/flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64
-	cp -r build/* dist/flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64
-	mkdir -p dist/flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64/doc
-	cp doc/manual.pdf dist/flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64/doc
-	cp README dist/flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64
-	cp -r data dist/flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64
-	-rm flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64.zip
-	(cd dist; zip -r -9 flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64.zip flann-${VER}-linux-x86_64)
-
-dist-bin-win32:
-	-rm -rf dist/flann-${VER}-win32*
-	@mkdir -p dist/flann-${VER}-win32
-	cp -r build/* dist/flann-${VER}-win32
-	mkdir -p dist/flann-${VER}-win32/doc
-	cp doc/manual.pdf dist/flann-${VER}-win32/doc
-	cp README dist/flann-${VER}-win32
-	cp -r data dist/flann-${VER}-win32
-	-rm flann-${VER}-win32.zip
-	(cd dist; zip -r -9 flann-${VER}-win32.zip flann-${VER}-win32)
-
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c613d750d9a4afb34dd05d078f951e9654031e05..30362423098e7ea59056813cd6bcf10d7e71f71a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ Getting FLANN
 
 The latest version of FLANN can be downloaded from here:
 
- *  Version 1.7.1 (23 December 2011)
-    [flann-1.7.1-src.zip](http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~mariusm/uploads/FLANN/flann-1.7.1-src.zip) (Source code)  
-    [User manual](http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~mariusm/uploads/FLANN/flann_manual-1.7.1.pdf)  
+ *  Version 1.8.0 (14 December 2012)
+    [flann-1.8.0-src.zip](http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~mariusm/uploads/FLANN/flann-1.8.0-src.zip) (Source code)  
+    [User manual](http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~mariusm/uploads/FLANN/flann_manual-1.8.0.pdf)  
     [Changelog](https://github.com/mariusmuja/flann/blob/master/ChangeLog)  
 
 If you want to try out the latest changes or contribute to FLANN, then it's recommended that you checkout the git source repository: `git clone git://github.com/mariusmuja/flann.git`
diff --git a/bin/make_release.sh b/bin/make_release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..37da190705ea24a7cd5eeda054ab3f26f2884964
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/make_release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+VERSION=`grep "set(FLANN_VERSION" CMakeLists.txt  | sed 's/[^0-9]*\([0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\)[^0-9]*/\1/'`
+
+echo "Creating flann-$VERSION-src.zip"
+
+git archive --prefix=flann-$VERSION-src/ -o flann-$VERSION-src.zip $VERSION-release