diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 531374f..7b7b8bf 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -204,3 +204,7 @@ PHP-Parser*/
 src/*.so
 src/*.dylib
 src/*.dll
+
+# ignoring output of package.xml as it needs to be generated from ./prepare_release.sh in each publishing
+package.xml
+*.tgz
diff --git a/package.xml-template_post b/package.xml-template_post
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2506f9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package.xml-template_post
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+ </contents>
+ <dependencies>
+  <required>
+   <php>
+    <min>7.4.0</min>
+   </php>
+   <pearinstaller>
+    <min>1.10.0</min>
+   </pearinstaller>
+  </required>
+ </dependencies>
+<providesextension>awscrt</providesextension>
+ <extsrcrelease/>
+ <changelog>
+  <release>
+
+  </release>
+ </changelog>
+</package>
diff --git a/package.xml-template_pre b/package.xml-template_pre
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53c7d5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package.xml-template_pre
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<package packagerversion="1.8.1" version="2.0" xmlns="http://pear.php.net/dtd/package-2.0" xmlns:tasks="http://pear.php.net/dtd/tasks-1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://pear.php.net/dtd/tasks-1.0     http://pear.php.net/dtd/tasks-1.0.xsd     http://pear.php.net/dtd/package-2.0     http://pear.php.net/dtd/package-2.0.xsd">
+ <name>awscrt</name>
+ <channel>pecl.php.net</channel>
+ <summary>AWS Common Runtime PHP bindings</summary>
+ <description>AWS Common Runtime provides a set of low level tools as network protocols and authentication used by the AWSSDK for PHP to provide high level API to access AWS services.</description>
+ <lead>
+  <name>{{{NAME}}}</name>
+  <user>{{{USER}}}</user>
+  <email>{{{EMAIL}}}</email>
+  <active>yes</active>
+ </lead>
+ <date>{{{TODAY}}}</date>
+ <version>
+   <release>{{{VERSION}}}</release>
+   <api>1.0.0</api>
+ </version>
+ <stability>
+   <release>devel</release>
+   <api>stable</api>
+ </stability>
+ <license uri="https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0">Apache License Version 2.0</license>
+ <notes>{{{NOTES}}}</notes>
+ <contents>
diff --git a/prepare_package_xml.sh b/prepare_package_xml.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..9e77582
--- /dev/null
+++ b/prepare_package_xml.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
+#!/bin/zsh
+zparseopts -A opts -name: -user: -email: -version: -notes:
+if [[ $# -lt 10 ]]
+then
+  echo "Usage ${0} --name NAME, --user USER --email EMAIL --version VERSION --notes NOTES"
+  exit 1
+fi
+NAME="${opts[--name]}"
+USER="${opts[--user]}"
+EMAIL="${opts[--email]}"
+VERSION="${opts[--version]}"
+NOTES="${opts[--notes]}"
+
+TODAY=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%d)
+
+cat package.xml-template_pre \
+    | sed "s/{{{NAME}}}/$NAME/g" \
+    | sed "s/{{{USER}}}/$USER/g" \
+    | sed "s/{{{EMAIL}}}/$EMAIL/g" \
+    | sed "s/{{{TODAY}}}/$TODAY/g" \
+    | sed "s/{{{VERSION}}}/$VERSION/g" \
+    | sed "s/{{{NOTES}}}/$NOTES/g"
+
+source_ext='(c|cc|h|cpp|hpp|m4|w32|ini|frag|cmake|inl|in|py|gnu|yaml|def|pl|S|s|errordata|go|lds|num|asm|mod|peg|mk|rs|toml|sh)'
+doc_ext='(md|json|html|dot|graphml|png|gn|sha1|css|rst|)'
+
+special_docs='(LICENSE*|NOTICE|changelog.txt|CHANGELOG|THIRD-PARTY|README*|readme|METADATA|CONTRIBUTORS|UPDATING|doc.config)'
+special_tests='(ci-test.sh|format-check.sh|run_tests*|sanitizer-blacklist.txt|run-clang-tidy.sh|benchmark-build-run.sh|break-tests.sh|generate-coverage.sh|test.xml)'
+special_src='(gen_api.php|gen_stub.php|CMakeLists.txt|post.sh|postun.sh|Makefile*|build-buildspec.sh|build-deps.sh|objects.txt|go.*|BUILD*|DEPS|install_and_run.sh|codemod.sh|requirements.txt)'
+skip_files='(package.xml*|prepare_release.sh|codereview.settings|*.o|*.a|*.obj|*.lib|break-tests-android.sh|whitespace.txt|prepare_package_xml.sh|crypto_test_data.cc|*.pdf|*.svg|*.docx|cbmc-proof.txt|codecov*|litani*|*.toml)'
+
+special_scripts='(awscrt.stub.php)'
+
+skip_directories='(tests|test|AWSCRTAndroidTestRunner|docker-images|codebuild|fuzz|verfication|third_party|docs|generated-src|aws-lc|aws-crt-sys)'
+
+process_file() {
+    if (( $# == 0 ))
+    then
+      echo "ERROR: filename not passed"
+      exit 1
+    fi
+    if [[ $1 = $~skip_files ]]
+    then
+      # This file is not part of the release bundle
+      return 0
+    fi
+
+    echo -n '<file name="'"$1"'" role="'
+    # Special cases
+    case ${a} in
+    $~special_scripts)
+      echo -n 'script'
+    ;;
+    $~special_docs)
+      echo -n 'doc'
+    ;;
+    $~special_tests)
+      echo -n 'test'
+    ;;
+    $~special_src)
+      echo -n 'src'
+    ;;
+    *)
+      # Extension based cases
+      case ${a:t:e} in
+      $~source_ext)
+        echo -n 'src'
+      ;;
+      $~doc_ext)
+         echo -n 'doc'
+      ;;
+      php)
+         echo -n 'script'
+      ;;
+      *)
+         echo "${a:t:e} - ${a} - FAIL TO RECOGNIZE"
+         exit 1
+      esac
+    esac
+    echo '"/>'
+    return 0
+}
+
+
+process_dir() {
+  if (( $# == 0 ))
+  then
+    echo "WARNING: dirname not passed"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  if [[ "${1}" = $~skip_directories ]]
+  then
+    return 0
+  fi
+  echo '<dir name="'"$1"'">'
+  cd "$1"
+  for a in *
+  do
+    if [[ -f ${a} ]]
+    then process_file "${a}"
+    else process_dir "${a}"
+    fi
+  done
+  # Special cases for compiler features placed in tests directories in and s2n
+  if [[ "${1}" = "s2n" && -d tests ]]
+  then
+      echo '<dir name="tests">'
+      echo '<dir name="features">'
+      cd tests/features
+      for a in *
+      do
+          process_file "${a}"
+      done
+      cd ../..
+      echo '</dir>'
+      echo '</dir>'
+  fi
+  echo '</dir>'
+  cd ..
+  return 0
+}
+
+echo '<dir name="/">'
+for a in *
+do
+  if [[ ${a} == 'tests' ]]
+  then
+    echo '<dir name="tests">'
+    for b in tests/*
+    do
+      echo '<file name="'$( basename "${b}" )'" role="test" />'
+    done
+    echo '</dir>'
+    continue
+  fi
+  if [[ -f ${a} ]]
+  then process_file "${a}"
+  else process_dir "${a}"
+  fi
+done
+echo '</dir>'
+
+cat package.xml-template_post
+
diff --git a/prepare_release.sh b/prepare_release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..3a9c5f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/prepare_release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/bin/zsh
+zparseopts -A opts -name: -user: -email: -version: -notes:
+if [[ $# -lt 10 ]]; then
+  echo "Usage ${0} --name NAME --user USER --email EMAIL --version VERSION --notes NOTES"
+  exit 1
+fi
+PACKAGE='awscrt'
+NAME="${opts[--name]}"
+USER="${opts[--user]}"
+EMAIL="${opts[--email]}"
+VERSION="${opts[--version]}"
+NOTES="${opts[--notes]}"
+
+./prepare_package_xml.sh --name "${NAME}" --user "${USER}" --email "${EMAIL}" --version "${VERSION}" --notes "${NOTES}" >package.xml
+if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR PROCESSING review package.xml"
+  exit 1
+fi
+tidy -xml -m -i package.xml
+pear package-validate
+if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR VALIDATING review package.xml"
+  exit 1
+fi
+pear package
+if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR PROCESSING review package.xml"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Size of ${PACKAGE}-${VERSION}.tgz: " $(du -h "${PACKAGE}-${VERSION}.tgz")