diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index a396b0a8..2e3ed87c 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ dist: spotless perlreq spec
 	rm -rf ./autom4te*.cache
 
 tar: dist
-	tar cvjf ../nasm-`cat version`-`date +%Y%m%d`.tar.bz2 ../`./nasm-dir`
+	tar -cvj --exclude CVS -C .. -f ../nasm-`cat version`-`date +%Y%m%d`.tar.bz2 `basename \`pwd\``
 
 spec: nasm.spec