diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..fc8870b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Abort on errors
+set -e
+
+if [[ " $* " =~ " "("-h"|"--help")" " ]]
+then
+  echo "Update and (re-)build backscrub"
+  echo "USAGE:"
+  echo "  ./build.sh [OPTIONS]"
+  echo ""
+  echo "  Options:"
+  echo "    --h, --help  Show this help message and exit"
+  echo "    --no-update  Skip fetching updates from github"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+# Get the root directory of the repository
+wd="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" || exit 1; pwd)"
+
+echo "working directory: $wd"
+cd "$wd"
+
+# Make sure we have the latest version of backscrub
+echo "Fetching latest version..."
+[[ " $* " =~ " --no-update" ]] || git pull --recurse-submodules
+echo "..done"
+echo ""
+
+# Backup the current build directory (if present)
+backup_dir="$(mktemp -d)"
+
+if [[ -d "./build" ]]
+then
+  echo "Backing up build directory..."
+  mv ./build "$backup_dir/build"
+  echo "..done"
+  echo ""
+  echo "backup dir: $backup_dir"
+
+  restore_backup() {
+    echo 'Restoring backup...'
+    if [[ -d "${1?}/build" ]] 
+    then
+      rm -rf ./build && mv "$1/build" ./build
+    fi
+    rm -rf "$1"
+    echo '..done'
+  }
+
+  # Restore the backup on error
+  trap "restore_backup $backup_dir" ERR
+
+fi
+
+echo "Building backscrub..."
+
+mkdir -p ./build
+cd ./build
+
+# Build backscrub
+cmake ..
+make -j "$(nproc || echo 4)"
+ln -s ../models models
+
+echo "..done"
+echo ""
+
+if [[ -d "$backup_dir" ]];
+then
+  echo "Cleaning up..."
+  # Delete the backup on success
+  rm -rf "$backup_dir"
+  echo "..done"
+  echo ""
+fi
+
+echo "All done. You can run backscrub like this:"
+echo "    cd \"$wd/build\" && ./backscrub -h"
+echo ""
+echo "Or you can add the following line to your ~/.bashrc, to get a backscrub command:"
+echo "backscrub() { ( cd \"$wd/build\" && ./backscrub \"\$@\" ) }"
+
+