diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c4ed45837d..0115c4dfcc 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -573,8 +573,8 @@ prepare: $(BUILD_DIR)/buildroot-config/auto.conf
 .PHONY: world
 world: target-post-image
 
-.PHONY: sdk
-sdk: world
+.PHONY: prepare-sdk
+prepare-sdk: world
 	@$(call MESSAGE,"Rendering the SDK relocatable")
 	$(TOPDIR)/support/scripts/fix-rpath host
 	$(TOPDIR)/support/scripts/fix-rpath staging
@@ -582,6 +582,17 @@ sdk: world
 	mkdir -p $(HOST_DIR)/share/buildroot
 	echo $(HOST_DIR) > $(HOST_DIR)/share/buildroot/sdk-location
 
+BR2_SDK_PREFIX ?= $(GNU_TARGET_NAME)_sdk-buildroot
+.PHONY: sdk
+sdk: prepare-sdk $(BR2_TAR_HOST_DEPENDENCY)
+	@$(call MESSAGE,"Generating SDK tarball")
+	$(if $(BR2_SDK_PREFIX),,$(error BR2_SDK_PREFIX can not be empty))
+	$(Q)mkdir -p $(BINARIES_DIR)
+	$(TAR) czf "$(BINARIES_DIR)/$(BR2_SDK_PREFIX).tar.gz" \
+		--owner=0 --group=0 --numeric-owner \
+		--transform='s#^\.#$(BR2_SDK_PREFIX)#' \
+		-C $(HOST_DIR) "."
+
 # Populating the staging with the base directories is handled by the skeleton package
 $(STAGING_DIR):
 	@mkdir -p $(STAGING_DIR)
diff --git a/docs/manual/using-buildroot-toolchain.txt b/docs/manual/using-buildroot-toolchain.txt
index 3246dc2411..0c0c35fced 100644
--- a/docs/manual/using-buildroot-toolchain.txt
+++ b/docs/manual/using-buildroot-toolchain.txt
@@ -12,15 +12,23 @@ The toolchain generated by Buildroot is located by default in
 +output/host/bin/+ to your PATH environment variable and then to
 use +ARCH-linux-gcc+, +ARCH-linux-objdump+, +ARCH-linux-ld+, etc.
 
-It is possible to relocate the toolchain, this allows to distribute
-the toolchain to other developers to build applications for your
-target. To achieve this:
+Alternatively, Buildroot can also export the toolchain and the development
+files of all selected packages, as an SDK, by running the command
++make sdk+. This generates a tarball of the content of the host directory
++output/host/+, named +<TARGET-TUPLE>_sdk-buildroot.tar.gz+ (which can be
+overriden by setting the environment variable +BR2_SDK_PREFIX+) and
+located in the output directory +output/images/+.
 
-* run +make sdk+, which prepares the toolchain to be relocatable;
-* tarball the contents of the +output/host+ directory;
-* distribute the resulting tarball.
+This tarball can then be distributed to application developers, when
+they want to develop their applications that are not (yet) packaged as
+a Buildroot package.
 
-Once the toolchain is installed to the new location, the user must run
-the +relocate-sdk.sh+ script to make sure all paths are updated with
-the new location.
+Upon extracting the SDK tarball, the user must run the script
++relocate-sdk.sh+ (located at the top directory of the SDK), to make
+sure all paths are updated with the new location.
 
+Alternatively, if you just want to prepare the SDK without generating
+the tarball (e.g. because you will just be moving the +host+ directory,
+or will be generating the tarball on your own), Buildroot also allows
+you to just prepare the SDK with +make prepare-sdk+ without actually
+generating a tarball.