diff --git a/gen-tarball.sh b/gen-tarball.sh
index 588c372f7f2..cb05ec7c2ac 100755
--- a/gen-tarball.sh
+++ b/gen-tarball.sh
@@ -1,37 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-# Generate a source tarball including submodules
-if [ -z "${1}" ] ; then
-    echo No tag or branch given
-    exit 1
-fi
-ver=${1}
-# Remove initial v from tag name for use in filenames
-if [ ${ver:0:1} = 'v' ] ; then
-    fver=${ver:1}
-else
-    fver=${ver}
-fi
-if [ -r xrootd-${fver}.tar.gz ] ; then
-    echo xrootd-${fver}.tar.gz already exists
-    exit 1
-fi
-curdir=$(pwd)
-tdir=$(mktemp -d)
-cd ${tdir}
-git clone https://github.com/xrootd/xrootd.git
-cd xrootd
-git checkout ${ver}
-if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
-    echo No such tag or branch: ${ver}
-    cd ${curdir}
-    rm -rf ${tdir}
-    exit 1
-fi
-git archive --prefix xrootd-${fver}/ ${ver} -o ${tdir}/xrootd-${fver}.tar
-cd ${tdir}
-gzip xrootd-${fver}.tar
-mv xrootd-${fver}.tar.gz ${curdir}
-cd ${curdir}
-rm -rf ${tdir}
+set -e
+
+TAG=$(printf "%s" "$(git describe "${1:-HEAD}")")
+NAME="xrootd-${TAG#v}"
+
+set -x
+
+git archive -9 --prefix="${NAME}/" -o "${NAME}.tar.gz" ${TAG}