diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 372ee756534..70952438a35 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -650,6 +650,7 @@ opt ninja 0 "build LLVM using the Ninja generator (for MSVC, requires building i
 opt locked-deps 0 "force Cargo.lock to be up to date"
 opt vendor 0 "enable usage of vendored Rust crates"
 opt sanitizers 0 "build the sanitizer runtimes (asan, lsan, msan, tsan)"
+opt dist-src 1 "when building tarballs enables building a source tarball"
 
 # Optimization and debugging options. These may be overridden by the release channel, etc.
 opt_nosave optimize 1 "build optimized rust code"
diff --git a/src/bootstrap/config.rs b/src/bootstrap/config.rs
index e95416be4b6..8308dc3202f 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/config.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/config.rs
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ pub struct Config {
     pub rustc_default_ar: Option<String>,
     pub rust_optimize_tests: bool,
     pub rust_debuginfo_tests: bool,
+    pub rust_dist_src: bool,
 
     pub build: String,
     pub host: Vec<String>,
@@ -183,6 +184,7 @@ struct Dist {
     sign_folder: Option<String>,
     gpg_password_file: Option<String>,
     upload_addr: Option<String>,
+    src_tarball: Option<bool>,
 }
 
 #[derive(RustcDecodable)]
@@ -246,6 +248,7 @@ impl Config {
         config.build = build.to_string();
         config.channel = "dev".to_string();
         config.codegen_tests = true;
+        config.rust_dist_src = true;
 
         let toml = file.map(|file| {
             let mut f = t!(File::open(&file));
@@ -380,6 +383,7 @@ impl Config {
             config.dist_sign_folder = t.sign_folder.clone().map(PathBuf::from);
             config.dist_gpg_password_file = t.gpg_password_file.clone().map(PathBuf::from);
             config.dist_upload_addr = t.upload_addr.clone();
+            set(&mut config.rust_dist_src, t.src_tarball);
         }
 
         return config
@@ -448,6 +452,7 @@ impl Config {
                 ("FULL_BOOTSTRAP", self.full_bootstrap),
                 ("EXTENDED", self.extended),
                 ("SANITIZERS", self.sanitizers),
+                ("DIST_SRC", self.rust_dist_src),
             }
 
             match key {
diff --git a/src/bootstrap/dist.rs b/src/bootstrap/dist.rs
index 52a7c63c904..8463a175bcb 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/dist.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/dist.rs
@@ -364,6 +364,10 @@ const CARGO_VENDOR_VERSION: &'static str = "0.1.4";
 
 /// Creates the `rust-src` installer component and the plain source tarball
 pub fn rust_src(build: &Build) {
+    if !build.config.rust_dist_src {
+        return
+    }
+
     println!("Dist src");
 
     let name = pkgname(build, "rust-src");
diff --git a/src/ci/docker/dist-x86-linux/Dockerfile b/src/ci/docker/dist-x86-linux/Dockerfile
index 61c23201c2c..f9324991aa0 100644
--- a/src/ci/docker/dist-x86-linux/Dockerfile
+++ b/src/ci/docker/dist-x86-linux/Dockerfile
@@ -82,5 +82,9 @@ RUN curl -L https://api.pub.build.mozilla.org/tooltool/sha512/$SCCACHE_DIGEST |
 ENV HOSTS=i686-unknown-linux-gnu
 ENV HOSTS=$HOSTS,x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
 
-ENV RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS --host=$HOSTS --enable-extended --enable-sanitizers
+ENV RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS \
+      --host=$HOSTS \
+      --enable-extended \
+      --enable-sanitizers
 ENV SCRIPT python2.7 ../x.py dist --host $HOSTS --target $HOSTS
+ENV DIST_SRC 1
diff --git a/src/ci/docker/x86_64-gnu-distcheck/Dockerfile b/src/ci/docker/x86_64-gnu-distcheck/Dockerfile
index ad6c0c15f72..afa99ca2b86 100644
--- a/src/ci/docker/x86_64-gnu-distcheck/Dockerfile
+++ b/src/ci/docker/x86_64-gnu-distcheck/Dockerfile
@@ -26,3 +26,4 @@ ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/dumb-init", "--"]
 
 ENV RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS --build=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
 ENV SCRIPT python2.7 ../x.py test distcheck
+ENV DIST_SRC 1
diff --git a/src/ci/run.sh b/src/ci/run.sh
index c161d998036..04db99ef278 100755
--- a/src/ci/run.sh
+++ b/src/ci/run.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS="$RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS --enable-quiet-tests"
 RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS="$RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS --disable-manage-submodules"
 RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS="$RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS --enable-locked-deps"
 
+if [ "$DIST_SRC" = "" ]; then
+  RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS="$RUST_CONFIGURE_ARGS --disable-dist-src"
+fi
+
 # If we're deploying artifacts then we set the release channel, otherwise if
 # we're not deploying then we want to be sure to enable all assertions becauase
 # we'll be running tests