git-targz

#!/bin/sh

# Tweaked from http://jeetworks.org/node/68 to remove bashisms.
# Drop this in your libexec/git-core/ to use it as "git targz"

if [ -z "$1" ]
then
    echo "Usage: git-targz [rev] path"
    echo
    echo "Creates gzipped-compressed tarball archive of the current or specified branch."
    exit 1
fi
 
if [ "$#" = "1" ]
then
    path=$1
    rev="HEAD"
else
    rev=$1
    path=$2
fi

basepath=`basename $path`
prefix=${basepath%%.*}
 
git archive --format=tar --prefix=$prefix/ $rev | gzip >$path

here's another: https://gist.github.com/965475

Generating the filename with "git describe" is nice. But why "/bin/bash"? The only reason I wrote this modification is because the original was unnecessarily bash-only. Yours works fine for me under /bin/sh on FreeBSD.

never thought to much about bash vs sh. I guess it's just habit. I've changed it for you :-) thanks for testing it.
I think that ubuntu that i use runs dash anyway...