diff --git a/make/projects-dir.mk b/make/projects-dir.mk
index 77100964..ac6a43d2 100644
--- a/make/projects-dir.mk
+++ b/make/projects-dir.mk
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@
 SHELL                 = /bin/bash -o pipefail
 PROJECTS_TXT         ?= projects.txt
 JW_BUILD_VERBOSE     ?= false
-PREREQ_BASE           = cvs git make sudo
+BASE_PKGS             = git cvs make sudo
+PREREQ_RELEASE       ?= pull
 
 # ------------ evaluate Makefile and environment variables
 
@@ -201,10 +202,10 @@ pkg-manager-refresh:
 	$(PKG_MANAGER_SH) refresh -y
 
 pkg-install-prereq-build:
-	$(PKG_MANAGER_SH) install -y $(PREREQ_BASE) $(shell $(PROJECTS_PY) requires-pkg --skip-excluded --flavours "build" $(TARGET_PROJECTS))
+	$(PKG_MANAGER_SH) install -y $(BASE_PKGS) $(shell $(PROJECTS_PY) requires-pkg --skip-excluded --flavours "build" $(TARGET_PROJECTS))
 
 pkg-install-prereq-release:
-	$(PKG_MANAGER_SH) install -y $(PREREQ_BASE) $(shell $(PROJECTS_PY) requires-pkg --skip-excluded --flavours "build run release" $(TARGET_PROJECTS))
+	$(PKG_MANAGER_SH) install -y $(BASE_PKGS) $(shell $(PROJECTS_PY) requires-pkg --skip-excluded --flavours "build run release" $(TARGET_PROJECTS))
 
 pkg-exclude-built-today:
 	touch $(EXCLUDES_FILE)
@@ -221,7 +222,7 @@ pkg-exclude-installed:
 pkg-list-groups:
 	@find . -name project.conf | xargs sed '/^ *group *=/!d; s/group *= *//; s/"//g' | sort -u
 
-pkg-release-reinstall: pull
+pkg-release-reinstall: $(PREREQ_RELEASE)
 
 pkg-release-all:
 	/bin/bash ./packager-client/scripts/packager-client-2.sh