diff --git a/META-INFO/.gitignore b/META-INFO/.gitignore
index eddcd95786..813c7152d6 100644
--- a/META-INFO/.gitignore
+++ b/META-INFO/.gitignore
@@ -3,3 +3,7 @@ build-info
# Do not track time-stamp
time-stamp
+
+# Do not track any manifest files
+Manifest.txt
+manifest.txt
diff --git a/bin/tools/foamPackRelease b/bin/tools/foamPackRelease
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..70e5c5e2d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/tools/foamPackRelease
@@ -0,0 +1,298 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# ========= |
+# \\ / F ield | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox
+# \\ / O peration |
+# \\ / A nd | Copyright (C) 2019 OpenCFD Ltd.
+# \\/ M anipulation |
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# License
+# This file is part of OpenFOAM.
+#
+# OpenFOAM is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# OpenFOAM is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
+# for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with OpenFOAM. If not, see .
+#
+# Script
+# foamTarRelease [OPTION]
+#
+# Description
+# Simple script generator for packing OpenFOAM sources and submodules
+#
+# $ foamTarRelease -output some/path origin/master > create-tar
+# $ bash ./create-tar
+#
+# Or directly:
+#
+# $ foamTarRelease -output some/path origin/master | bash
+#
+# Done as two-step process to allow further manual adjustments as required
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Script="${0##*/}"
+
+usage() {
+ exec 1>&2
+ while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do echo "$1"; shift; done
+cat < create-tar
+ sh ./create-tar
+
+USAGE
+ exit 1
+}
+
+# Report error and exit
+die()
+{
+ exec 1>&2
+ echo
+ echo "Error encountered:"
+ while [ "$#" -ge 1 ]; do echo " $1"; shift; done
+ echo
+ echo "See '${0##*/} -help' for usage"
+ echo
+ exit 1
+}
+
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+outputDir="."
+withModules=true
+unset gitbase head commit compress
+
+while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]
+do
+ case "$1" in
+ -h | -help*)
+ usage
+ ;;
+ -output)
+ [ "$#" -ge 2 ] || usage "'$1' option requires an argument"
+ outputDir="$2"
+ shift
+ ;;
+ -no-modules)
+ unset withModules
+ ;;
+ -compress=*)
+ compress="${1#*=}"
+ ;;
+ -*)
+ usage "unknown option: '$*'"
+ ;;
+ *)
+ break
+ ;;
+ esac
+ shift
+done
+
+commit="$1"
+[ "$#" -eq 1 ] && [ -n "$commit" ] || usage "Requires one argument"
+
+
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Resolve the output directory
+outputDir="$(cd $outputDir 2>/dev/null && pwd -L)" || \
+ die "Cannot resolve output directory"
+
+[ -w "$outputDir" ] || \
+ die "Output directory non-writable: $outputDir"
+
+echo "Using outputDir=$outputDir" 1>&2
+
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Locate the git repository
+
+# Locate git-dir via rev-parse
+findGitDir()
+{
+ (
+ if cd "$1" 2>/dev/null && \
+ git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree > /dev/null 2>&1
+ then
+ git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null
+ fi
+ )
+}
+
+echo "Find git repository ... from script location" 1>&2
+gitbase=$(findGitDir "${0%/*}")
+
+##DEBUG unset gitbase
+if [ -z "$gitbase" ]
+then
+ echo "Find git repository ... from current directory" 1>&2
+ gitbase=$(findGitDir "$PWD")
+fi
+
+[ -d "$gitbase" ] || die "Could not locate a git directory"
+echo "Detected git repository at $gitbase" 1>&2
+
+
+# Resolve the given commit-ish to a real commit number.
+# Eg, origin/master on input, SHA1 on output
+head="$(git --git-dir="$gitbase/.git" rev-parse "$commit")"
+
+[ -n "$head" ] || die "Could resolve requested start point $commit"
+echo "Resolved $commit as $head" 1>&2
+
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Determine the API and PATCH numbers.
+# Extract from META-INFO/api-info
+
+unset api patch sha1
+
+# Grab the sha1 for the file
+sha1=$(git --git-dir="$gitbase/.git" ls-tree "$head" META-INFO/api-info | \
+ awk '{ if ($2 == "blob") { print $3 }}')
+
+
+[ -n "$sha1" ] || die "Could locate git content for META-INFO/api-info"
+
+# The api and patch
+api="$(git --git-dir="$gitbase/.git" show "$sha1" | sed -ne s/api=//p)"
+patch="$(git --git-dir="$gitbase/.git" show "$sha1" | sed -ne s/patch=//p)"
+
+[ -n "$api" ] || die "Could resolve api value"
+
+echo "Detected api, patch as '$api' and '$patch'" 1>&2
+
+# Define the output names
+dirPrefix="OpenFOAM-v${api}"
+tarName="OpenFOAM-v${api}"
+
+if [ "${patch:-0}" -gt 0 ]
+then
+ tarName="${tarName}_$patch"
+fi
+
+echo 1>&2
+echo "Tar-file name: $tarName.tar" 1>&2
+echo "Directory name: $dirPrefix/" 1>&2
+echo 1>&2
+
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# Create main tar
+echo "#!/bin/bash"
+echo "cd \""$gitbase/"\" || exit 1"
+echo "api=\""$api"\""
+echo "patch=\""${patch:-0}"\""
+echo "head=\""$head"\""
+echo "outputDir=\""$outputDir"\""
+echo "dirPrefix=\""$dirPrefix"\""
+echo "tarName=\""$tarName"\""
+# Note - directory separator '/' encoded as '@' for manifest name
+echo "manifest=\""${dirPrefix}"@META-INFO@"manifest.txt"\""
+echo
+echo "set -x"
+echo 'git archive --format=tar --prefix="$dirPrefix/" -o "$outputDir/$tarName.tar" "$head"'
+
+echo 'echo "api=$api" > "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+echo 'echo "patch=$patch" >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+echo 'echo "head=$head" >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+echo 'echo >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+echo 'git ls-tree -r "$head" >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+
+
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Add in mpdules
+if [ "$withModules" = true ]
+then
+ git --git-dir="$gitbase/.git" ls-tree "$head" modules/ | \
+ while read mode gittype sha1 module
+ do
+ [ "$gittype" == commit ] || continue
+
+ echo
+ echo "module=\""$module"\""
+ echo "commit=\""$sha1"\""
+ echo "tarModule=\""$tarName-${module##*/}"\""
+
+ echo
+ echo 'pushd "$module"'
+ echo 'git archive --format=tar --prefix="$dirPrefix/$module/" -o "$outputDir/$tarModule.tar" "$commit"'
+ echo 'git ls-tree -r "$commit" >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+
+ echo 'echo >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+ echo 'echo "$module" >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+ echo 'echo "commit=$commit" >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+ echo 'echo >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+ echo 'git ls-tree -r "$commit" >> "$outputDir/$manifest"'
+
+ echo 'tar -Af "$outputDir/$tarName.tar" "$outputDir/$tarModule.tar"'
+ echo 'rm -f "$outputDir/$tarModule.tar"'
+ echo "popd"
+ echo
+ done
+fi
+
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Add in manifest
+# Decode '@' in manifest as '/' directory separator
+
+echo
+echo "echo 'Adding manifest'"
+echo 'pushd "$outputDir"'
+echo "tar --append --transform='s|@|/|g' -v -f \"\$tarName.tar\" \"\$manifest\""
+echo 'rm -f "$manifest"'
+echo "popd"
+
+echo
+echo "# End of creating archive"
+echo
+
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Compression
+
+case "$compress" in
+ ('')
+ echo "No compression requested" 1>&2
+ ;;
+
+ (gz | gzip)
+ echo "Using gzip compression" 1>&2
+ echo 'gzip -9 "$outputDir/$tarName.tar"'
+ ;;
+
+ (tgz)
+ echo "Using gzip compression with tgz ending" 1>&2
+ echo 'gzip -c9 "$outputDir/$tarName.tar" > "$outputDir/$tarName.tgz"'
+ ;;
+
+ (bz | bzip | bzip2)
+ echo "Using bzip2 compression" 1>&2
+ echo 'bzip2 -9 "$outputDir/$tarName.tar"'
+ ;;
+
+ (xz)
+ echo "Using xz compression" 1>&2
+ echo 'xz -9 "$outputDir/$tarName.tar"'
+ ;;
+
+ (*)
+ echo "Unknown compression scheme: $compress" 1>&2
+ ;;
+esac
+
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------