diff --git a/obs-service-tar_scm.changes b/obs-service-tar_scm.changes
index f113d22..9dfba64 100644
--- a/obs-service-tar_scm.changes
+++ b/obs-service-tar_scm.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tue Jan 24 15:46:17 UTC 2012 - rschiele@gmail.com
+
+- add new option to specify a subset of files/subdirectories to
+  pack in the tar ball
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Jan 24 13:26:19 UTC 2012 - rschiele@gmail.com
 
diff --git a/tar_scm b/tar_scm
index 6497742..b211f2e 100644
--- a/tar_scm
+++ b/tar_scm
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ MYFILENAME=""
 MYREVISION=""
 MYPACKAGEMETA=""
 MYGITARGS="--depth 1"
+INCLUDES=""
 
 while test $# -gt 0; do
   case $1 in
@@ -42,6 +43,10 @@ while test $# -gt 0; do
       MYVERSION="$2"
       shift
     ;;
+    *-include)
+      INCLUDES="$INCLUDES $2"
+      shift
+    ;;
     *-versionprefix)
       MYPREFIX="$2"
       shift
@@ -276,9 +281,18 @@ else
   FILENAME="${FILE}-${VERSION}"
 fi
 
+MYINCLUDES=""
+
+for INC in $INCLUDES; do
+  MYINCLUDES="$MYINCLUDES $FILENAME/$INC"
+done
+if [ -z "$MYINCLUDES" ]; then
+  MYINCLUDES="$FILENAME"
+fi
+
 mv "$FILE/$MYSUBDIR" "${FILENAME}" || exit 1
 
-tar cf "$MYOUTDIR/${FILENAME}.tar" $EXCLUDES "${FILENAME}" || exit 1
+tar cf "$MYOUTDIR/${FILENAME}.tar" $EXCLUDES $MYINCLUDES || exit 1
 rm -rf "${FILENAME}" "$FILE"
 
 exit 0
diff --git a/tar_scm.service b/tar_scm.service
index 2709f50..9b38e90 100644
--- a/tar_scm.service
+++ b/tar_scm.service
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@
     <description>base file name to be created</description>
   </parameter>
   <parameter name="exclude">
-    <description>for sepcifing excludes when creating the tar ball</description>
+    <description>for specifying excludes when creating the tar ball</description>
+  </parameter>
+  <parameter name="include">
+    <description>for specifying subset of files/subdirectories to pack in the tar ball</description>
   </parameter>
   <parameter name="version">
     <description>version to be used in tar. Setting it to an empty string is disabling the version tag.</description>