diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index e94971d9..a28fa9cb 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -25,6 +25,22 @@
     <fileset dir="${deploy.dir}/lib" includes="**/*.jar"/>
   </path>
 
+  <!-- generates fields for persistent record classes -->
+  <target name="genrecord" depends="prepare">
+    <taskdef name="grecord" classname="com.samskivert.jdbc.depot.tools.GenRecordTask"
+             classpathref="classpath"/>
+    <!-- make sure the record class files are all compiled -->
+    <javac srcdir="src/java" destdir="${classes.dir}"
+           debug="on" optimize="${build.optimize}" deprecation="on">
+      <classpath refid="classpath"/>
+      <include name="**/*Record.java"/>
+    </javac>
+    <!-- now update the source files -->
+    <grecord classpathref="classpath">
+      <fileset dir="src/java" includes="**/*Record.java"/>
+    </grecord>
+  </target>
+
   <!-- generates additional methods for distributed object classes -->
   <target name="gendobj" depends="prepare"> 
     <taskdef name="dobj" classpathref="classpath"