diff --git a/tasks/commandLineArguments.ts b/tasks/commandLineArguments.ts
index 41da95d5cc..b74d241d0f 100644
--- a/tasks/commandLineArguments.ts
+++ b/tasks/commandLineArguments.ts
@@ -8,10 +8,13 @@
 import * as minimist from 'minimist';
 import * as path from 'path';
 
-let argv = minimist(process.argv.slice(2));
+let argv = minimist(process.argv.slice(2), {
+    boolean: ['retainVsix']
+});
 
-export const commandLineOptions ={
-    outputFolder:  makePathAbsolute(argv['o']),
+export const commandLineOptions = {
+    retainVsix: !!argv['retainVsix'],
+    outputFolder: makePathAbsolute(argv['o']),
     codeExtensionPath: makePathAbsolute(argv['codeExtensionPath'])
 };
 
diff --git a/tasks/offlinePackagingTasks.ts b/tasks/offlinePackagingTasks.ts
index 725fb69b74..8426d014e7 100644
--- a/tasks/offlinePackagingTasks.ts
+++ b/tasks/offlinePackagingTasks.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import { PlatformInformation } from '../src/platform';
 import { DownloadAndInstallPackages } from '../src/packageManager/PackageManager';
 import NetworkSettings from '../src/NetworkSettings';
 import { GetRunTimeDependenciesPackages } from '../src/CSharpExtDownloader';
+import { commandLineOptions } from '../tasks/commandLineArguments';
 
 gulp.task('vsix:offline:package', async () => {
     del.sync(vscodeignorePath);
@@ -37,7 +38,14 @@ gulp.task('vsix:offline:package', async () => {
 });
 
 async function doPackageOffline() {
-    cleanSync(true);
+    if (commandLineOptions.retainVsix) {
+        //if user doesnot want to clean up the existing vsix packages	
+        cleanSync(false);
+    }
+    else {
+        cleanSync(true);
+    }
+    
     util.setExtensionPath(codeExtensionPath);
     const packageJSON = getPackageJSON();
     const name = packageJSON.name;
diff --git a/test/releaseTests/offlinePackage.test.ts b/test/releaseTests/offlinePackage.test.ts
index 64f99faa3f..49d9ba073b 100644
--- a/test/releaseTests/offlinePackage.test.ts
+++ b/test/releaseTests/offlinePackage.test.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ suite("Offline packaging of VSIX", function () {
         let args: string[] = [];
         args.push(path.join("node_modules", "gulp", "bin", "gulp.js"));
         args.push("package:offline");
+        args.push("--retainVsix");// do not delete the existing vsix in the repo
         args.push(`-o`);
         args.push(tmpDir.name);
         invokeNode(args);