diff --git a/IPython/Extensions/ipy_completers.py b/IPython/Extensions/ipy_completers.py
index e5644cb..10ed5dc 100644
--- a/IPython/Extensions/ipy_completers.py
+++ b/IPython/Extensions/ipy_completers.py
@@ -211,10 +211,15 @@ def hg_completer(self,event):
 
 
 
+__bzr_commands = None
+
 def bzr_commands():
+    global __bzr_commands
+    if __bzr_commands is not None:
+        return __bzr_commands
     out = os.popen('bzr help commands')
-    return [l.split()[0] for l in out] 
-                 
+    __bzr_commands = [l.split()[0] for l in out]
+    return __bzr_commands                
 
 def bzr_completer(self,event):
     """ Completer for bazaar commands """
diff --git a/tools/make_tarball.py b/tools/make_tarball.py
index 80bd309..7768bcd 100755
--- a/tools/make_tarball.py
+++ b/tools/make_tarball.py
@@ -1,12 +1,7 @@
 import os,sys,shutil
 
-repo = "http://ipython.scipy.org/svn/ipython/ipython/branches/0.7.3"
-basename = 'ipython'
-workdir = './mkdist'
-
-workdir = os.path.abspath(workdir)
+basever = '0.8.3'
 
-print "working at",workdir
 def oscmd(c):
     print ">",c
     s = os.system(c)
@@ -14,15 +9,24 @@ def oscmd(c):
         print "Error",s
         sys.exit(s)
 
+def verinfo():
+    
+    out = os.popen('bzr version-info')
+    pairs = (l.split(':',1) for l in out)
+    d = dict(((k,v.strip()) for (k,v) in pairs)) 
+    return d
+
+basename = 'ipython'
+
+#tarname = '%s.r%s.tgz' % (basename, ver)
+oscmd('update_revnum.py')
+
+ver = verinfo()
 
-assert not os.path.isdir(workdir)
-os.mkdir(workdir)
-os.chdir(workdir)
+if ver['branch-nick'] == 'ipython':
+    tarname = 'ipython-%s.bzr.r%s.tgz' % (basever, ver['revno'])
+else:
+    tarname = 'ipython-%s.bzr.r%s.%s.tgz' % (basever, ver['revno'], ver['branch-nick'])
+    
+oscmd('bzr export ' + tarname)
 
-oscmd('svn export %s %s' % (repo,basename))
-ver = os.popen('svnversion ../..').read().strip()
-tarname = '%s.r%s.tgz' % (basename, ver)
-oscmd('tar czvf ../%s %s' % (tarname, basename))
-print "Produced: ",os.path.abspath('../' + tarname)
-os.chdir('/')
-shutil.rmtree(workdir)