diff --git a/chroot-scripts/selfupdate b/chroot-scripts/selfupdate
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..4819d69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/chroot-scripts/selfupdate
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# selfupdate MacPorts in the chroot
+#
+
+if [[ -z "$PREFIX" ]]; then
+    PREFIX=/opt/local
+fi
+
+${PREFIX}/bin/port selfupdate
diff --git a/mpexport.sh b/mpexport.sh
index a92ef26..6732892 100755
--- a/mpexport.sh
+++ b/mpexport.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-#/bin/sh
-svn checkout -r HEAD https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk mpexport
+#!/bin/sh
+mkdir -p mpexport
+svn checkout --non-interactive -r HEAD https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/base mpexport/base
+svn checkout --non-interactive -r HEAD https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports mpexport/dports
 cd mpexport
 tar c --exclude '.svn' -f - . | bzip2 -c > ../macports_dist.tar.bz2
 cd ..
diff --git a/mpsync.sh b/mpsync.sh
index 409b8c0..d88ebf0 100755
--- a/mpsync.sh
+++ b/mpsync.sh
@@ -45,12 +45,18 @@ function chroot_exec () {
 
 if [[ -d ${dataDir}/${exportDir} ]] ; then 
     svn update --non-interactive \
-	-r HEAD ${dataDir}/${exportDir}/* || exit 1
+	    -r HEAD ${dataDir}/${exportDir}/base || exit 1
+	svn update --non-interactive \
+	    -r HEAD ${dataDir}/${exportDir}/dports || exit 1
 else
     echo "Checking out macports from svn..."
+    mkdir -p ${dataDir}/${exportDir}
     svn checkout --non-interactive -r HEAD \
-	https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk \
-	${dataDir}/${exportDir} || exit 1
+	    https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/base \
+	    ${dataDir}/${exportDir}/base || exit 1
+	svn checkout --non-interactive -r HEAD \
+	    https://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports \
+	    ${dataDir}/${exportDir}/dports || exit 1
 fi
 
 if [[ -n "$chrootPath" && ! -d "$chrootPath" ]] ; then
@@ -65,6 +71,12 @@ rsync -av --del --exclude '*~' --exclude '.svn' --exclude '/dports/PortIndex*' \
 echo "Re-creating portindex"
 chroot_exec recreateportindex
 
+if [[ "$BASE_UPDATE" == "selfupdate" ]]; then
+    chroot_exec selfupdate
+elif [[ "$BASE_UPDATE" == "svn" ]]; then
+    chroot_exec installmacports
+fi
+
 if [[ "${umount}" = yes ]] ; then
     sudo ${baseDir}/mpab umount || exit 1
 fi