diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy
index b047bc89da2..e955d5d507c 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginBuildPlugin.groovy
@@ -120,12 +120,15 @@ public class PluginBuildPlugin extends BuildPlugin {
         // add the plugin properties and metadata to test resources, so unit tests can
         // know about the plugin (used by test security code to statically initialize the plugin in unit tests)
         SourceSet testSourceSet = project.sourceSets.test
-        testSourceSet.output.dir(buildProperties.generatedResourcesDir, builtBy: 'pluginProperties')
+        testSourceSet.output.dir(buildProperties.descriptorOutput.parentFile, builtBy: 'pluginProperties')
         testSourceSet.resources.srcDir(pluginMetadata)
 
         // create the actual bundle task, which zips up all the files for the plugin
         Zip bundle = project.tasks.create(name: 'bundlePlugin', type: Zip, dependsOn: [project.jar, buildProperties]) {
-            from buildProperties // plugin properties file
+            from(buildProperties.descriptorOutput.parentFile) {
+                // plugin properties file
+                include(buildProperties.descriptorOutput.name)
+            }
             from pluginMetadata // metadata (eg custom security policy)
             from project.jar // this plugin's jar
             from project.configurations.runtime - project.configurations.provided // the dep jars
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesTask.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesTask.groovy
index b7b2a7f1cb9..94bc0ba3e75 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesTask.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/plugin/PluginPropertiesTask.groovy
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.gradle.VersionProperties
 import org.gradle.api.InvalidUserDataException
 import org.gradle.api.Task
 import org.gradle.api.tasks.Copy
+import org.gradle.api.tasks.OutputFile
 
 /**
  * Creates a plugin descriptor.
@@ -29,20 +30,20 @@ import org.gradle.api.tasks.Copy
 class PluginPropertiesTask extends Copy {
 
     PluginPropertiesExtension extension
-    File generatedResourcesDir = new File(project.buildDir, 'generated-resources')
+
+    @OutputFile
+    File descriptorOutput = new File(project.buildDir, 'generated-resources/plugin-descriptor.properties')
 
     PluginPropertiesTask() {
-        File templateFile = new File(project.buildDir, 'templates/plugin-descriptor.properties')
+        File templateFile = new File(project.buildDir, "templates/${descriptorOutput.name}")
         Task copyPluginPropertiesTemplate = project.tasks.create('copyPluginPropertiesTemplate') {
             doLast {
-                InputStream resourceTemplate = PluginPropertiesTask.getResourceAsStream('/plugin-descriptor.properties')
+                InputStream resourceTemplate = PluginPropertiesTask.getResourceAsStream("/${descriptorOutput.name}")
                 templateFile.parentFile.mkdirs()
                 templateFile.setText(resourceTemplate.getText('UTF-8'), 'UTF-8')
             }
         }
-        doFirst {
-            project.delete(generatedResourcesDir)
-        }
+
         dependsOn(copyPluginPropertiesTemplate)
         extension = project.extensions.create('esplugin', PluginPropertiesExtension, project)
         project.afterEvaluate {
@@ -57,8 +58,8 @@ class PluginPropertiesTask extends Copy {
                 throw new InvalidUserDataException('classname is a required setting for esplugin')
             }
             // configure property substitution
-            from(templateFile)
-            into(generatedResourcesDir)
+            from(templateFile.parentFile).include(descriptorOutput.name)
+            into(descriptorOutput.parentFile)
             Map<String, String> properties = generateSubstitutions()
             expand(properties)
             inputs.properties(properties)