diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 5a0f1a1e3..8b3a10aa8 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -102,6 +102,9 @@ Other changes:
 
 * regexp mapper now supports the java.util.regex package of JDK 1.4.
 
+* New filesonly attribute for <zip> and friends to suppress directory
+  entries.
+
 Fixed bugs:
 -----------
 
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html
index 7372b8e64..d40412743 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/ear.html
@@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ attributes of zipfilesets in a Zip or Jar task.)</p>
       likely be unreadable for Java otherwise.</strong></td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">filesonly</td>
+    <td valign="top">Store only file entries, defaults to false</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">includes</td>
     <td valign="top">comma separated list of patterns of files that must be
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html
index c9848cba8..74d0ca222 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/jar.html
@@ -73,6 +73,11 @@ include an empty one for you.)</p>
       likely be unreadable for Java otherwise.</strong></td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">filesonly</td>
+    <td valign="top">Store only file entries, defaults to false</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">includes</td>
     <td valign="top">comma separated list of patterns of files that must be
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/war.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/war.html
index 996796f1a..bb19991e1 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/war.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/war.html
@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@ attributes of zipfilesets in a Zip or Jar task.)</p>
       likely be unreadable for Java otherwise.</strong></td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">filesonly</td>
+    <td valign="top">Store only file entries, defaults to false</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">includes</td>
     <td valign="top">comma separated list of patterns of files that must be
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/zip.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/zip.html
index 0aff1d699..57ed5975f 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/zip.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/zip.html
@@ -74,6 +74,11 @@ Java.</p>
     Defaults to the platform's default character encoding.</td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">filesonly</td>
+    <td valign="top">Store only file entries, defaults to false</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">includes</td>
     <td valign="top">comma separated list of patterns of files that must be
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Zip.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Zip.java
index 110b862cc..46d0cafc0 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Zip.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Zip.java
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ public class Zip extends MatchingTask {
     private File zipFile;
     private File baseDir;
     private boolean doCompress = true;
+    private boolean doFilesonly = false;
     protected String archiveType = "zip";
     // For directories:
     private static long emptyCrc = new CRC32 ().getValue ();
@@ -114,6 +115,13 @@ public class Zip extends MatchingTask {
         doCompress = c;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Emulate Sun's jar utility by not adding parent dirs
+     */
+    public void setFilesonly(boolean f) {
+        doFilesonly = f;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Adds a set of files (nested fileset attribute).
      */
@@ -529,27 +537,28 @@ public class Zip extends MatchingTask {
     protected void addParentDirs(File baseDir, String entry,
                                  ZipOutputStream zOut, String prefix)
         throws IOException {
-
-        Stack directories = new Stack();
-        int slashPos = entry.length();
-
-        while ((slashPos = entry.lastIndexOf((int)'/', slashPos-1)) != -1) {
-            String dir = entry.substring(0, slashPos+1);
-            if (addedDirs.get(prefix+dir) != null) {
-                break;
+        if( !doFilesonly ) {
+            Stack directories = new Stack();
+            int slashPos = entry.length();
+            
+            while ((slashPos = entry.lastIndexOf((int)'/', slashPos-1)) != -1) {
+                String dir = entry.substring(0, slashPos+1);
+                if (addedDirs.get(prefix+dir) != null) {
+                    break;
+                }
+                directories.push(dir);
             }
-            directories.push(dir);
-        }
-
-        while (!directories.isEmpty()) {
-            String dir = (String) directories.pop();
-            File f = null;
-            if (baseDir != null) {
-                f = new File(baseDir, dir);
-            } else {
-                f = new File(dir);
+            
+            while (!directories.isEmpty()) {
+                String dir = (String) directories.pop();
+                File f = null;
+                if (baseDir != null) {
+                    f = new File(baseDir, dir);
+                } else {
+                    f = new File(dir);
+                }
+                zipDir(f, zOut, prefix+dir);
             }
-            zipDir(f, zOut, prefix+dir);
         }
     }