diff --git a/tools/makefile_sign_executable b/tools/makefile_sign_executable
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..86cd134de7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/makefile_sign_executable
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# make sign_executable with minimal dependencies, e.g. no MySQL
+#
+all: sign_executable
+
+sign_executable:
+	g++ -o sign_executable -I.. -I../lib ../lib/crypt.cpp ../lib/md5.cpp ../lib/md5_file.cpp ../lib/filesys.cpp ../lib/util.cpp ../lib/str_util.cpp -lssl -lcrypto sign_executable.cpp