diff --git a/tools/svnupcheck.pl b/tools/svnupcheck.pl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..723305bbce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/svnupcheck.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+# feed this script the output from svn update and it will tell if a rebuild
+# is needed/wanted
+my $change;
+while(<STDIN>) {
+    if(/^([A-Z]+)  *(.*)/) {
+        my ($w, $path) = ($1, $2);
+        if($path !~ /^(rbutil|manual)/) {
+            $change++;
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+print "rebuild!\n" if($change);