diff --git a/scripts/ceres-solver.spec b/scripts/ceres-solver.spec
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f8c7a9d1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ceres-solver.spec
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+Name:           ceres-solver
+Version:        1.5.0
+# Release candidate versions are messy. Give them a release of
+# e.g. "0.1.0%{?dist}" for RC1 (and remember to adjust the Source0
+# URL). Non-RC releases go back to incrementing integers starting at 1.
+Release:        0.1.0%{?dist}
+Summary:        A non-linear least squares minimizer
+
+Group:          Development/Libraries
+License:        BSD
+URL:            http://code.google.com/p/ceres-solver/
+Source0:        http://%{name}.googlecode.com/files/%{name}-%{version}rc1.tar.gz
+BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n)
+
+%if (0%{?rhel} <= 6)
+BuildRequires:  cmake28
+%else
+BuildRequires:  cmake
+%endif
+BuildRequires:  eigen3-devel
+BuildRequires:  suitesparse-devel
+# Use atlas for BLAS and LAPACK
+BuildRequires:  atlas-devel
+BuildRequires:  protobuf-devel
+BuildRequires:  gflags-devel
+BuildRequires:  glog-devel
+
+%description
+Ceres Solver is a portable C++ library that allows for modeling and solving
+large complicated nonlinear least squares problems. Features include:
+
+  - A friendly API: build your objective function one term at a time
+  - Automatic differentiation
+  - Robust loss functions
+  - Local parameterizations
+  - Threaded Jacobian evaluators and linear solvers
+  - Levenberg-Marquardt and Dogleg (Powell & Subspace) solvers
+  - Dense QR and Cholesky factorization (using Eigen) for small problems
+  - Sparse Cholesky factorization (using SuiteSparse) for large sparse problems
+  - Specialized solvers for bundle adjustment problems in computer vision
+  - Iterative linear solvers for general sparse and bundle adjustment problems
+  - Runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and Android. An iOS port is underway
+
+Notable use of Ceres Solver is for the image alignment in Google Maps and for
+vehicle pose in Google Street View.
+
+
+%package        devel
+Summary:        A non-linear least squares minimizer
+Group:          Development/Libraries
+Requires:       %{name} = %{version}-%{release}
+
+%description    devel
+The %{name}-devel package contains libraries and header files for
+developing applications that use %{name}.
+
+
+%prep
+%setup -q
+
+%build
+mkdir build
+pushd build
+
+# Disable the compilation flags that rpmbuild macros try to apply to all
+# packages because it breaks the build since release 1.5.0rc1
+%define optflags ""
+%if (0%{?rhel} <= 6)
+%{cmake28} .. \
+%else
+%{cmake} .. \
+%endif
+    -DBLAS_LIB:FILEPATH=%{_libdir}/atlas/libatlas.so \
+    -DLAPACK_LIB:FILEPATH=%{_libdir}/atlas/liblapack.so
+make %{?_smp_mflags}
+
+
+%install
+rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
+pushd build
+make install DESTDIR=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT
+find $RPM_BUILD_ROOT -name '*.la' -delete
+
+
+%clean
+rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
+
+
+%post -p /sbin/ldconfig
+
+%postun -p /sbin/ldconfig
+
+
+%files
+%defattr(-,root,root,-)
+%doc
+%{_libdir}/*.so.*
+
+%files devel
+%defattr(-,root,root,-)
+%doc
+%{_includedir}/*
+%{_libdir}/*.so
+%{_libdir}/*.a
+
+
+%changelog
+* Sun Feb 24 2013 Taylor Braun-Jones <taylor@braun-jones.org> - 1.5.0-0.1.0
+- Bump version.
+
+* Sun Oct 14 2012 Taylor Braun-Jones <taylor@braun-jones.org> - 1.4.0-0
+- Initial creation
diff --git a/scripts/make_release b/scripts/make_release
index 1634f7c12..36643e9bd 100755
--- a/scripts/make_release
+++ b/scripts/make_release
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ VERSION_IN_HEADER=$(grep '#define CERES_VERSION' include/ceres/ceres.h | \
 ABI_VERSION_IN_HEADER=$(grep '#define CERES_ABI_VERSION' \
                               include/ceres/ceres.h | \
                         sed -e 's/#define CERES_ABI_VERSION //')
+VERSION_IN_SPEC=$(grep '^Version:' scripts/ceres-solver.spec | \
+                  sed -e 's/Version: *//')
 GIT_COMMIT=$(git log -1 HEAD |grep commit)
 
 if [[ $1 != $VERSION ]] ; then
@@ -78,6 +80,15 @@ if [[ $ABI_VERSION_IN_HEADER != $ABI_VERSION ]] ; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
+if [[ $VERSION_IN_SPEC != $VERSION ]] ; then
+  echo "ERROR: Version string from scripts/ceres-solver.spec, which is"
+  echo "       $VERSION_IN_SPEC, does not match the version"
+  echo "       from the toplevel CMakeLists.txt, which is $ABI_VERSION."
+  echo "       You may not be in the toplevel source directory, or the"
+  echo "       versions are out of sync."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 # Clone the repository and clean out the git extras.
 git clone . $TMP
 rm -rf "$TMP/.git"
@@ -101,6 +112,14 @@ rm -rf $TMP
 rm -rf $DOCS_TMP
 
 # Reminder to upload.
-echo
-echo "TODO: upload /tmp/ceres-solver-$1.tar.gz"
-echo
+cat <<EOF 
+
+TODO:
+  - Upload /tmp/ceres-solver-$1.tar.gz
+
+  - Update the release string in scripts/ceres-solver.spec if this is a RC
+    release or the first release after a RC release.
+
+  - Build and upload RPM package.
+
+EOF