diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 08afead6494..d4d956199a1 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@
 						<artifactId>target-platform-configuration</artifactId>
 						<version>${tycho-version}</version>
 						<configuration>
-							<includePackedArtifacts>false</includePackedArtifacts>
+							<includePackedArtifacts>true</includePackedArtifacts>
 						</configuration>
 					</plugin>
 					<plugin>
diff --git a/releng/org.eclipse.cdt.repo/pom.xml b/releng/org.eclipse.cdt.repo/pom.xml
index ea4067b1600..39fc50c533d 100644
--- a/releng/org.eclipse.cdt.repo/pom.xml
+++ b/releng/org.eclipse.cdt.repo/pom.xml
@@ -48,6 +48,21 @@
 												<include name="**" />
 											</fileset>
 										</copy>
+
+										<!-- remove the packed files from the zip file to make it smaller -->
+										<unzip src="target/org.eclipse.cdt.repo.zip" dest="target/tmp"/>
+										<delete file="target/org.eclipse.cdt.repo.zip"/>
+										<delete>
+											<fileset dir="target/tmp">
+												<include name="plugins/*.pack.gz"/>
+											</fileset>
+										</delete>
+										<zip destfile="target/org.eclipse.cdt.repo.zip">
+											<fileset dir="target/tmp">
+												<include name="**"/>
+											</fileset>
+										</zip>
+									 	<delete dir="target/tmp"/>
 									</target>
 								</configuration>
 								<goals>