diff --git a/installation/setup_shellrc.py b/installation/setup_shellrc.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..8a8b14ab8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/installation/setup_shellrc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+import os,sys,string,re
+from optparse import OptionParser
+
+pathInfo = {\
+            'acml': 'lib/acml4.4.0',
+            'fftw': 'lib/fftw',
+            'msc':  '/msc',
+           }
+
+validShells = {\
+               'bash':['.bashrc','.bash_profile'],
+               'csh': ['.cshrc'],
+              }
+
+environment = {\
+                'LD_LIBRARY_PATH': {'delete':'"acml"',                                                 # what keywords trigger item deletion from existing path 
+                                    'substitute':'[os.path.join(pathInfo["acml"],"ifort64_mp/lib"),\
+                                                   os.path.join(pathInfo["acml"],"ifort64/lib")]',     # what to substitute for deleted path items
+                                    'append': True,                                                    # whether new entries append to existing ${env}
+                                   },
+                'PYTHONPATH':      {'delete':'os.path.join(DamaskRoot,"lib")',
+                                    'substitute':'[os.path.join(DamaskRoot,"lib")]',
+                                    'append': True,
+                                   },
+                'DAMASK_ROOT':     {'delete':'DamaskRoot',
+                                    'substitute':'[DamaskRoot]',
+                                    'append': False,
+                                   },
+              }
+parser = OptionParser(usage="%prog [options]", description = """
+Sets up your shell resource to be compatible with DAMASK. 
+""" + string.replace('$Id$','\n','\\n')
+)
+
+parser.add_option("-s","--shell", type="string", 
+                  dest = "shell", \
+                  help = "type of shell, e.g. "+', '.join(validShells.keys())+" [%default]")
+
+parser.set_defaults(shell = 'bash')
+
+(options, args) = parser.parse_args()
+
+DamaskRoot = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(sys.argv[0])),'../'))
+
+try:                                        # check for user-defined pathinfo
+  file = open(os.path.join(DamaskRoot,'lib/pathinfo'))
+  content = file.readlines()
+  file.close()
+  for line in content:
+    pathinfo[line.split()[0].lower()] = os.path.normpath(line.split()[1])
+except:
+  pass
+
+theShell = options.shell.lower()
+theHome = os.getenv('USERPROFILE') or os.getenv('HOME')
+
+if theShell == 'bash':
+  for theRC in validShells[theShell]:
+    thePath = os.path.join(theHome,theRC)
+    if os.path.exists(thePath):
+      rc = open(os.path.join(theHome,theRC))
+      content = map(string.strip,rc.readlines())
+      rc.close()
+
+      output = []
+      for envVar in environment.keys(): environment[envVar]['matched'] = False
+  
+      for line in content:
+        for envVar,data in environment.items():
+          m = re.search(r'^(.*?%s=)([^;]*)(.*)$'%envVar,line)
+          if m:
+            substitute = eval(data['substitute'])+[path for path in m.group(2).split(':') if eval(data['delete']) not in path]
+            line = m.group(1)+':'.join(substitute)+m.group(3)
+            environment[envVar]['matched'] = True
+
+        output.append(line)
+
+      for envVar,data in environment.items():
+        if not data['matched']:
+          output.append('export %s=%s'%(envVar,':'.join(eval(data['substitute'])+{True:['${%s}'%envVar],False:[]}[data['append']])))
+
+      rc = open(os.path.join(theHome,theRC),'w')
+      rc.write('\n'.join(output)+'\n')
+      rc.close()
+
+elif theShell == 'csh':
+  print 'csh not supported yet...'