diff --git a/script/git-archive-submodules.sh b/script/git-archive-submodules.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..f6abec3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/script/git-archive-submodules.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# git-archive-submodules - A script to produce an archive tar.gz file of the a git module including all git submodules
+# based on https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/git-archive-with-submodules-and-tar-magic/
+
+
+usage()
+{
+  echo >&2 "git-archive-submodules - A script to produce an archive tar.gz file of the
+                       a git module including all git submodules"
+  echo >&2 "requires: git, sed, gzip, and tar (or gtar on macos)"
+  echo >&2 "usage: $0 [destination]"
+}
+
+# requires gnu-tar on mac
+export TARCOMMAND=tar
+case "$OSTYPE" in
+  darwin*)    export TARCOMMAND=gtar;;
+  linux-gnu*) export TARCOMMAND=tar;;
+  *)        echo "unknown: $OSTYPE" && exit 1;;
+esac
+command -v ${TARCOMMAND} >/dev/null 2>&1 || { usage; echo >&2 "ERROR: I require ${TARCOMMAND} but it's not installed.  Aborting."; exit 1; }
+
+# reqiures git
+command -v git >/dev/null 2>&1 || { usage; echo >&2 "ERROR:I require git but it's not installed.  Aborting."; usage; exit 1; }
+
+# requires sed
+command -v sed >/dev/null 2>&1 || { usage; echo >&2 "ERROR:I require sed but it's not installed.  Aborting."; usage; exit 1; }
+
+# requires gzip
+command -v gzip >/dev/null 2>&1 || { usage; echo >&2 "ERROR:I require gzip but it's not installed.  Aborting."; usage; exit 1; }
+
+export TARMODULE=`basename \`git rev-parse --show-toplevel\``
+export TARVERSION=`git describe --tags --abbrev=0 | sed 's/v//g'`
+export TARPREFIX="${TARMODULE}-${TARVERSION}"
+
+# create module archive
+git archive --prefix=${TARPREFIX}/ -o ${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar v${TARVERSION}
+if [[ ! -f "${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar" ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR: base sourcecode archive was not created. check git output in log above."
+  usage
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# force init submodules
+git submodule update --init --recursive
+
+# tar each submodule recursively
+git submodule foreach --recursive 'git archive --prefix=${TARPREFIX}/${displaypath}/ HEAD > ${TMPDIR}tmp.tar && ${TARCOMMAND} --concatenate --file=${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar ${TMPDIR}tmp.tar'
+
+# compress tar file
+gzip -9 ${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar
+if [[ ! -f "${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar.gz" ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR: gzipped archive was not created. check git output in log above."
+  usage
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# copy file to final name and location if specified
+if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
+  destination=${TARPREFIX}-including-submodules.tar.gz
+else
+  destination=$1
+fi
+cp ${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar.gz ${destination}
+if [[ -f "${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar.gz" ]]; then
+  rm ${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar.gz
+  echo "created ${destination}"
+else
+  echo "ERROR copying ${TMPDIR}${TARPREFIX}.tar.gz to ${destination}"
+  usage
+  exit 1
+fi