diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 1f543d6600..c888933372 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 include AUTHORS LICENSE .functests .unittests .probetests test/__init__.py
+include ChangeLog
 graft doc  
 graft etc
 graft test/functional
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5555883946..b706f38adb 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -15,6 +15,23 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+from setuptools.command.sdist import sdist
+import os
+import subprocess
+
+class local_sdist(sdist):
+    """Customized sdist hook - builds the ChangeLog file from VC first"""
+
+    def run(self):
+        if os.path.isdir('.bzr'):
+            # We're in a bzr branch
+            log_cmd = subprocess.Popen(["bzr","log","--gnu"],
+                                       stdout = subprocess.PIPE)
+            changelog = log_cmd.communicate()[0]
+            with open("ChangeLog", "w") as changelog_file:
+                changelog_file.write(changelog)
+        sdist.run(self)
+
 
 name='swift'
 version='1.0.2'
@@ -29,6 +46,7 @@ setup(
     url='https://launchpad.net/swift',
     packages=find_packages(exclude=['test','bin']),
     test_suite = 'nose.collector',
+    cmdclass = {'sdist': local_sdist},
     classifiers=[
         'Development Status :: 4 - Beta',
         'License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License',