diff --git a/bin/install.sh b/bin/install.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..5794dd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/install.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+numArgs=$#
+
+set -e -o pipefail
+
+function die() {
+    MESG="${1:-Died}"
+    echo "${MESG}" >&2
+    exit 1
+}
+
+
+if [[ !$numArgs -gt 0 ]]; then
+	die "Please supply a version number e.g. 0.0.1"
+fi
+
+group="de.mpg.shh"
+artifact="util"
+version=$1
+
+lein clean
+lein deps
+lein jar
+lein pom
+
+test -f "target/${artifact}-${version}.jar" || die "Build failed: jar not found"
+
+lein localrepo install -p pom.xml target/${artifact}-${version}.jar ${group}/${artifact} ${version}
+
+# create sha1sums for the jar and pom
+group_path=$(echo "${group}" | tr "." "/")
+jar_path="${HOME}/.m2/repository/${group_path}/${artifact}/${version}/${artifact}-${version}.jar"
+jar_sum_path="${jar_path}.sha1"
+
+pom_path="${HOME}/.m2/repository/${group_path}/${artifact}/${version}/${artifact}-${version}.pom"
+pom_sum_path="${pom_path}.sha1"
+
+shasum ${jar_path} | cut -d ' ' -f 1 > ${jar_sum_path}
+shasum ${pom_path} | cut -d ' ' -f 1 > ${pom_sum_path}
diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..75837e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+(defproject de.mpg.shh/util "0.2.0"
+  :description "Miscellaneous utilities for shh projects"
+  :url "http://www.shh.mpg.de/"
+  :license {:name "Eclipse Public License"
+            :url "http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html"}
+  :dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.8.0"]
+                 [org.clojure/tools.logging "0.3.1"]
+                 [org.apache.logging.log4j/log4j-api "2.5"]
+                 [org.apache.logging.log4j/log4j-core "2.5"]
+                 [org.apache.logging.log4j/log4j-1.2-api "2.5"]
+                 [org.slf4j/slf4j-log4j12 "1.6.4"]]
+  :source-paths ["src/main/clojure"])
diff --git a/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/core.clj b/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/core.clj
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0c59695
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/core.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+(ns de.mpg.shh.util.core)
+
+(defn not-nil? [maybe-nil] (not (nil? maybe-nil)))
+(defn not-empty? [maybe-empty] (not (empty? maybe-empty)))
+
diff --git a/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/exceptions.clj b/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/exceptions.clj
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ca323e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/exceptions.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+(ns de.mpg.shh.util.exceptions
+  (:import [java.io StringWriter PrintWriter]))
+
+(defn stack-trace-to-string
+  "Returns a string containing the output of .printStackTrace"
+  [t]
+  (let [sw (StringWriter.)
+        pw (PrintWriter. sw)
+        _ (.printStackTrace t pw)]
+    (.toString sw)))
+
diff --git a/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/file.clj b/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/file.clj
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2d1829f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/clojure/de/mpg/shh/util/file.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+(ns de.mpg.shh.util.file
+  (:import [java.nio.file Files]))
+
+(defn file-to-byte-array
+  "Converts a java.io.File to a byte[]"
+  [file]
+  (Files/readAllBytes (.toPath file)))