diff --git a/rust-bindings/rust/.gitlab-ci.yml b/rust-bindings/rust/.gitlab-ci.yml
index a04e26b0..634f1cd2 100644
--- a/rust-bindings/rust/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/rust-bindings/rust/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -62,11 +62,13 @@ pages:
 publish_libostree-sys:
   stage: publish
   script:
+  - make pre-package
   - cargo publish --verbose --manifest-path libostree-sys/Cargo.toml --token $CRATES_IO_TOKEN
   when: manual
 
 publish_libostree:
   stage: publish
   script:
+  - make pre-package
   - cargo publish --verbose --manifest-path libostree/Cargo.toml --token $CRATES_IO_TOKEN
   when: manual
diff --git a/rust-bindings/rust/Makefile b/rust-bindings/rust/Makefile
index 08d6e749..0ffbc173 100644
--- a/rust-bindings/rust/Makefile
+++ b/rust-bindings/rust/Makefile
@@ -2,11 +2,16 @@ all: generate-libostree-sys generate-libostree
 
 .PHONY: update-gir-files
 
-# tools
+
+# -- cargo package helpers --
+pre-package:
+	cp README.md libostree/
+
+
+# -- gir generation --
 tools/bin/gir:
 	cargo install --root tools --git https://github.com/gtk-rs/gir.git -- gir
 
-# gir generate
 gir/%: tools/bin/gir
 	tools/bin/gir -c conf/$*.toml
 
@@ -14,7 +19,8 @@ generate-libostree-sys: gir/libostree-sys
 
 generate-libostree: gir/libostree
 
-# gir file management
+
+# -- gir file management --
 update-gir-files: \
 	remove-gir-files \
 	gir-files \
diff --git a/rust-bindings/rust/README.md b/rust-bindings/rust/README.md
deleted file mode 120000
index d4cabc61..00000000
--- a/rust-bindings/rust/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-libostree/README.md
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/rust-bindings/rust/README.md b/rust-bindings/rust/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6a3a40a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rust-bindings/rust/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+# Rust bindings for libostree
+libostree is both a shared library and suite of command line tools that combines a "git-like" model for committing and
+downloading bootable filesystem trees, along with a layer for deploying them and managing the bootloader configuration.
+The core OSTree model is like git in that it checksums individual files and has a content-addressed-object store. It's
+unlike git in that it "checks out" the files via hardlinks, and they thus need to be immutable to prevent corruption.
+
+[libostree site](https://ostree.readthedocs.io) | [libostree git repo](https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree)
+
+This project provides [Rust](https://rust-lang.org) bindings for libostree. They are automatically generated, but rather
+incomplete as of yet.
+
+## Setup
+The `libostree` crate requires libostree and the libostree development headers. On Debian/Ubuntu, they can be installed
+with:
+
+```ShellSession
+$ sudo apt-get install libostree-1 libostree-dev
+```
+
+To use the crate, add it to your `Cargo.toml`:
+
+```toml
+[dependencies]
+libostree = "0.1"
+```
+
+To use features from later libostree versions, you need to specify the release version as well: 
+
+```toml
+[dependencies.libostree]
+version = "0.1"
+features = ["v2018_7"]
+```
+
+## License
+The libostree crate is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.
+
+libostree itself is licensed under the LGPL2+. See its [licensing information](https://ostree.readthedocs.io#licensing)
+for more information.
diff --git a/rust-bindings/rust/libostree/README.md b/rust-bindings/rust/libostree/README.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 6a3a40a7..00000000
--- a/rust-bindings/rust/libostree/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-# Rust bindings for libostree
-libostree is both a shared library and suite of command line tools that combines a "git-like" model for committing and
-downloading bootable filesystem trees, along with a layer for deploying them and managing the bootloader configuration.
-The core OSTree model is like git in that it checksums individual files and has a content-addressed-object store. It's
-unlike git in that it "checks out" the files via hardlinks, and they thus need to be immutable to prevent corruption.
-
-[libostree site](https://ostree.readthedocs.io) | [libostree git repo](https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree)
-
-This project provides [Rust](https://rust-lang.org) bindings for libostree. They are automatically generated, but rather
-incomplete as of yet.
-
-## Setup
-The `libostree` crate requires libostree and the libostree development headers. On Debian/Ubuntu, they can be installed
-with:
-
-```ShellSession
-$ sudo apt-get install libostree-1 libostree-dev
-```
-
-To use the crate, add it to your `Cargo.toml`:
-
-```toml
-[dependencies]
-libostree = "0.1"
-```
-
-To use features from later libostree versions, you need to specify the release version as well: 
-
-```toml
-[dependencies.libostree]
-version = "0.1"
-features = ["v2018_7"]
-```
-
-## License
-The libostree crate is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.
-
-libostree itself is licensed under the LGPL2+. See its [licensing information](https://ostree.readthedocs.io#licensing)
-for more information.