diff --git a/init_hdl.sh b/init_hdl.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b57e5f36d91a1b2b2fe02b6b9e8350a78d7f01c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/init_hdl.sh
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+#!/usr/bin/env bash -e
+###############################################################################
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2018 
+# ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy) <http://www.astron.nl/>
+# P.O.Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
+#
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+# $Id$
+#
+###############################################################################
+
+#
+# Initialisation script to setup the environment variables for this branch
+#
+
+# 
+# Make sure it is sourced and no one accidentally gave the script execution rights and just executes it.
+if [ "${0}" != "bash" ]; then
+    echo "ERROR: Use this command with '. ' or 'source '"
+    exit
+fi
+
+# Figure out where this script is located and set environment variables accordingly
+export RADIOHDL_WORK="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+# setup paths to build and config dir if not already defined by the user.
+export HDL_BUILD_DIR=${HDL_BUILD_DIR:-${RADIOHDL_WORK}/build}
+echo "RadioHDL environment will be setup for" $RADIOHDL_WORK
+
+. ../radiohdl/init_radiohdl.sh