diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 75010cf3a..613972d17 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -749,6 +749,10 @@ Other changes:
    optional prefix and suffix attributes.
    Bugzilla Report 45625
 
+ * <jar> has a new attribute to enable indexing of META-INF
+   directories which is desabled for backwards compatibility reasons.
+   Bugzilla Report 47457
+
 Changes from Ant 1.7.0 TO Ant 1.7.1
 =============================================
 
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html
index 34c746e07..ea6768add 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html
@@ -155,6 +155,20 @@ to a value other than its default, <code>&quot;add&quot;</code>.</b></p>
     false.</td>
     <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">indexMetaInf</td>
+    <td valign="top">whether to include META-INF and its children in
+      the index.  Doesn't have any effect if <em>index</em> is
+      false.<br/>
+      Sun's jar implementation used to skip the META-INF directory and
+      Ant followed that example.  The behavior has been changed with
+      <a href="http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4408526">Java
+      5</a>.  In order to avoid problems with Ant generated jars on
+      Java 1.4 or earlier Ant will not include META-INF unless
+      explicitly asked to.<br/>
+      <em>Ant 1.8.0</em> - Defaults to false.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">update</td>
     <td valign="top">indicates whether to update or overwrite
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html
index d1eecac23..105f3b6c2 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html
@@ -204,6 +204,20 @@ to a value other than its default, <code>"add"</code>.</b></p>
     false.</td>
     <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">indexMetaInf</td>
+    <td valign="top">whether to include META-INF and its children in
+      the index.  Doesn't have any effect if <em>index</em> is
+      false.<br/>
+      Sun's jar implementation used to skip the META-INF directory and
+      Ant followed that example.  The behavior has been changed with
+      <a href="http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4408526">Java
+      5</a>.  In order to avoid problems with Ant generated jars on
+      Java 1.4 or earlier Ant will not include META-INF unless
+      explicitly asked to.<br/>
+      <em>Ant 1.8.0</em> - Defaults to false.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">manifestencoding</td>
     <td valign="top">The encoding used to read the JAR manifest, when a manifest file is specified.</td>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java
index fb3d20971..a3e5b49f9 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Jar.java
@@ -119,6 +119,9 @@ public class Jar extends Zip {
     /** jar index is JDK 1.3+ only */
     private boolean index = false;
 
+    /** Whether to index META-INF/ and its children */
+    private boolean indexMetaInf = false;
+
     /**
      * whether to really create the archive in createEmptyZip, will
      * get set in getResourcesToAdd.
@@ -223,6 +226,25 @@ public class Jar extends Zip {
         index = flag;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Set whether or not to add META-INF and its children to the index.
+     *
+     * <p>Doesn't have any effect if index is false.</p>
+     *
+     * <p>Sun's jar implementation used to skip the META-INF directory
+     * and Ant followed that example.  The behavior has been changed
+     * with Java 5.  In order to avoid problems with Ant generated
+     * jars on Java 1.4 or earlier Ant will not include META-INF
+     * unless explicitly asked to.</p>
+     *
+     * @see http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4408526
+     * @since Ant 1.8.0
+     * @param flag a <code>boolean</code> value, defaults to false
+     */
+    public void setIndexMetaInf(boolean flag) {
+        indexMetaInf = flag;
+    }
+
     /**
      * The character encoding to use in the manifest file.
      *
@@ -972,7 +994,9 @@ public class Jar extends Zip {
             // looks like nothing from META-INF should be added
             // and the check is not case insensitive.
             // see sun.misc.JarIndex
-            if (dir.startsWith("META-INF")) {
+            // see also 
+            // http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4408526
+            if (!indexMetaInf && dir.startsWith("META-INF")) {
                 continue;
             }
             // name newline
@@ -1064,9 +1088,6 @@ public class Jar extends Zip {
                 org.apache.tools.zip.ZipEntry ze =
                     (org.apache.tools.zip.ZipEntry) entries.nextElement();
                 String name = ze.getName();
-                // META-INF would be skipped anyway, avoid index for
-                // manifest-only jars.
-                if (!name.startsWith("META-INF/")) {
                     if (ze.isDirectory()) {
                         dirSet.add(name);
                     } else if (name.indexOf("/") == -1) {
@@ -1079,7 +1100,6 @@ public class Jar extends Zip {
                         dirSet.add(name.substring(0,
                                                   name.lastIndexOf("/") + 1));
                     }
-                }
             }
             dirs.addAll(dirSet);
         } finally {
diff --git a/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/jar-test.xml b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/jar-test.xml
index bee7a6601..6678ef2f6 100644
--- a/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/jar-test.xml
+++ b/src/tests/antunit/taskdefs/jar-test.xml
@@ -60,4 +60,30 @@
     </jar>
     <au:assertLogDoesntContain text="skipping jar archive"/>
   </target>
+
+  <target name="-metainf-setup">
+    <mkdir dir="${input}/services"/>
+    <touch file="${input}/services/foo"/>
+    <mkdir dir="${output}"/>
+  </target>
+
+  <target name="testIndexNoMetaInf" depends="-metainf-setup">
+    <jar index="true" destfile="${output}/test.jar">
+      <metainf dir="${input}"/>
+    </jar>
+    <unjar src="${output}/test.jar" dest="${output}"/>
+    <au:assertFileExists file="${output}/META-INF/INDEX.LIST"/>
+    <au:assertResourceDoesntContain value="META-INF"
+                                    resource="${output}/META-INF/INDEX.LIST"/>
+  </target>
+
+  <target name="testIndexMetaInf" depends="-metainf-setup">
+    <jar index="true" destfile="${output}/test.jar" indexMetaInf="true">
+      <metainf dir="${input}"/>
+    </jar>
+    <unjar src="${output}/test.jar" dest="${output}"/>
+    <au:assertFileExists file="${output}/META-INF/INDEX.LIST"/>
+    <au:assertResourceContains value="META-INF"
+                               resource="${output}/META-INF/INDEX.LIST"/>
+  </target>
 </project>