diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 41d139ffe..1601004f2 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -1205,6 +1205,7 @@
 
   <condition property="buildosxpackage">
     <os family="mac"/>
+    <isset property="buildosxpackage.required"/>
   </condition>
 
   <target name="pkg_distribution" depends="zip_distribution" if="buildosxpackage">
diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
index c595a1452..249ccb9fd 100755
--- a/release.sh
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ if $linux; then
    export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk
    JDK_VERSION=1.6
 fi
+# check that one can build under maven
+mvn -f src/etc/poms/pom.xml -DskipTests  package
+rm -rf target
 export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
 echo ANT_HOME=$ANT_HOME
 echo JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME