diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 882beb6172f8f..4a309d280df95 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -515,10 +515,13 @@ endif
 
 # Make tarball with only Julia code
 light-source-dist: light-source-dist.tmp
-	# Prefix everything with the current directory name (usually "julia"), then create tarball
-	DIRNAME=$$(basename $$(pwd)); \
-	sed -e "s_.*_$$DIRNAME/&_" light-source-dist.tmp > light-source-dist.tmp1; \
-	cd ../ && tar -cz --no-recursion -T $$DIRNAME/light-source-dist.tmp1 -f $$DIRNAME/julia-$(JULIA_VERSION)_$(JULIA_COMMIT).tar.gz
+	# Prefix everything with "julia-$(commit-sha)/" or "julia-$(version)/" and then create tarball
+	# To achieve prefixing, we temporarily create a symlink in the source directory that points back
+	# to the source directory.
+	sed -e "s_.*_julia-${JULIA_COMMIT}/&_" light-source-dist.tmp > light-source-dist.tmp1
+	ln -s . julia-${JULIA_COMMIT}
+	tar -cz --no-recursion -T light-source-dist.tmp1 -f julia-$(JULIA_VERSION)_$(JULIA_COMMIT).tar.gz
+	rm julia-${JULIA_COMMIT}
 
 source-dist:
 	@echo \'source-dist\' target is deprecated: use \'full-source-dist\' instead.
@@ -532,10 +535,13 @@ full-source-dist: light-source-dist.tmp
 	cp light-source-dist.tmp full-source-dist.tmp
 	-ls deps/srccache/*.tar.gz deps/srccache/*.tar.bz2 deps/srccache/*.tar.xz deps/srccache/*.tgz deps/srccache/*.zip deps/srccache/*.pem >> full-source-dist.tmp
 
-	# Prefix everything with the current directory name (usually "julia"), then create tarball
-	DIRNAME=$$(basename $$(pwd)); \
-	sed -e "s_.*_$$DIRNAME/&_" full-source-dist.tmp > full-source-dist.tmp1; \
-	cd ../ && tar -cz --no-recursion -T $$DIRNAME/full-source-dist.tmp1 -f $$DIRNAME/julia-$(JULIA_VERSION)_$(JULIA_COMMIT)-full.tar.gz
+	# Prefix everything with "julia-$(commit-sha)/" or "julia-$(version)/" and then create tarball
+	# To achieve prefixing, we temporarily create a symlink in the source directory that points back
+	# to the source directory.
+	sed -e "s_.*_julia-${JULIA_COMMIT}/&_" full-source-dist.tmp > full-source-dist.tmp1
+	ln -s . julia-${JULIA_COMMIT}
+	tar -cz --no-recursion -T full-source-dist.tmp1 -f julia-$(JULIA_VERSION)_$(JULIA_COMMIT)-full.tar.gz
+	rm julia-${JULIA_COMMIT}
 
 clean: | $(CLEAN_TARGETS)
 	@-$(MAKE) -C $(BUILDROOT)/base clean