diff --git a/build/mark-new-version.sh b/build/mark-new-version.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index c573d62e2b9..00000000000
--- a/build/mark-new-version.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,153 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-# Copyright 2014 The Kubernetes Authors All rights reserved.
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-
-# Bumps the version number by creating a couple of commits.
-
-set -o errexit
-set -o nounset
-set -o pipefail
-
-if [ "$#" -ne 1 ]; then
-  echo "Usage: ${0} <version>"
-  exit 1
-fi
-
-KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
-
-NEW_VERSION=${1-}
-
-fetch_url=$(git remote -v | grep kubernetes/kubernetes.git | grep fetch | awk '{ print $2 }')
-if ! push_url=$(git remote -v | grep kubernetes/kubernetes.git | grep push | awk '{ print $2 }'); then
-  push_url="https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.git"
-fi
-fetch_remote=$(git remote -v | grep kubernetes/kubernetes.git | grep fetch | awk '{ print $1 }')
-
-VERSION_REGEX="^v(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$"
-[[ ${NEW_VERSION} =~ $VERSION_REGEX ]] || {
-  echo "!!! You must specify the version in the form of '$VERSION_REGEX'" >&2
-  exit 1
-}
-
-VERSION_MAJOR="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
-VERSION_MINOR="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
-VERSION_PATCH="${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
-
-if ! git diff HEAD --quiet; then
-  echo "!!! You must not have any uncommitted changes when running this command"
-  exit 1
-fi
-
-if ! git diff-files --quiet pkg/version/base.go; then
-  echo "!!! You have changes in 'pkg/version/base.go' already."
-  exit 1
-fi
-
-release_branch="release-${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}"
-current_branch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
-head_commit=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
-
-if [[ "${VERSION_PATCH}" != "0" ]]; then
-  # sorry, no going back in time, pull latest from upstream
-  git remote update > /dev/null 2>&1
-
-  if git ls-remote --tags --exit-code ${fetch_url} refs/tags/${NEW_VERSION} > /dev/null; then
-    echo "!!! You are trying to tag ${NEW_VERSION} but it already exists.  Stop it!"
-    exit 1
-  fi
-
-  last_version="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.$((VERSION_PATCH-1))"
-  if ! git ls-remote --tags --exit-code ${fetch_url} refs/tags/${last_version} > /dev/null; then
-    echo "!!! You are trying to tag ${NEW_VERSION} but ${last_version} doesn't even exist!"
-    exit 1
-  fi
-
-  # this is rather magic.  This checks that HEAD is a descendant of the github branch release-x.y
-  branches=$(git branch --contains $(git ls-remote --heads ${fetch_url} refs/heads/${release_branch} | cut -f1) ${current_branch})
-  if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
-    echo "!!! git failed, I dunno...."
-    exit 1
-  fi
-
-  if [[ ${branches} != "* ${current_branch}" ]]; then
-    echo "!!! You are trying to tag to an existing minor release but branch: ${release_branch} is not an ancestor of ${current_branch}"
-    exit 1
-  fi
-fi
-
-SED=sed
-if which gsed &>/dev/null; then
-  SED=gsed
-fi
-if ! ($SED --version 2>&1 | grep -q GNU); then
-  echo "!!! GNU sed is required.  If on OS X, use 'brew install gnu-sed'."
-fi
-
-echo "+++ Running ./versionize-docs"
-# Links in docs should always point to the release branch. 
-${KUBE_ROOT}/build/versionize-docs.sh ${release_branch}
-git commit -am "Versioning docs and examples to ${release_branch}"
-
-VERSION_FILE="${KUBE_ROOT}/pkg/version/base.go"
-
-GIT_MINOR="${VERSION_MINOR}.${VERSION_PATCH}"
-echo "+++ Updating to ${NEW_VERSION}"
-$SED -ri -e "s/gitMajor\s+string = \"[^\"]*\"/gitMajor string = \"${VERSION_MAJOR}\"/" "${VERSION_FILE}"
-$SED -ri -e "s/gitMinor\s+string = \"[^\"]*\"/gitMinor string = \"${GIT_MINOR}\"/" "${VERSION_FILE}"
-$SED -ri -e "s/gitVersion\s+string = \"[^\"]*\"/gitVersion string = \"$NEW_VERSION-${release_branch}+\$Format:%h\$\"/" "${VERSION_FILE}"
-gofmt -s -w "${VERSION_FILE}"
-
-echo "+++ Committing version change"
-git add "${VERSION_FILE}"
-git commit -m "Kubernetes version ${NEW_VERSION}"
-
-echo "+++ Tagging version"
-git tag -a -m "Kubernetes version ${NEW_VERSION}" "${NEW_VERSION}"
-# We have to sleep for a bit so that the timestamp of the beta tag is after the
-# timestamp of the release version, so that future commits are described as
-# beta, and not release versions.
-echo "+++ Waiting for 5 seconds to ensure timestamps are different before continuing"
-sleep 5
-echo "+++ Tagging beta tag"
-declare -r beta_ver="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.$((${VERSION_PATCH}+1))-beta"
-git tag -a -m "Kubernetes version ${beta_ver}" "${beta_ver}"
-newtag=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
-
-if [[ "${VERSION_PATCH}" == "0" ]]; then
-  declare -r alpha_ver="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.$((${VERSION_MINOR}+1)).0-alpha.0"
-  git tag -a -m "Kubernetes pre-release branch ${alpha_ver}" "${alpha_ver}" "${head_commit}"
-fi
-
-echo ""
-echo "Success you must now:"
-echo ""
-echo "- Push the tags:"
-echo "   git push ${push_url} ${NEW_VERSION}"
-echo "   git push ${push_url} ${beta_ver}"
-
-if [[ "${VERSION_PATCH}" == "0" ]]; then
-  echo "- Push the alpha tag:"
-  echo "   git push ${push_url} ${alpha_ver}"
-  echo "- Push the new release branch:"
-  echo "   git push ${push_url} ${current_branch}:${release_branch}"
-  echo "- DO NOTHING TO MASTER. You were done with master when you pushed the alpha tag."
-else
-  echo "- Send branch: ${current_branch} as a PR to ${release_branch} <-- NOTE THIS"
-  echo "- In the contents of the PR, include the PRs in the release:"
-  echo "    hack/cherry_pick_list.sh ${current_branch}^1"
-  echo "  This helps cross-link PRs to patch releases they're part of in GitHub."
-  echo "- Have someone review the PR. This is a mechanical review to ensure it contains"
-  echo "  the ${NEW_VERSION} commit, which was tagged at ${newtag}."
-fi
diff --git a/build/versionize-docs.sh b/build/versionize-docs.sh
index 8eb4c0aaff0..d102b6b67b9 100755
--- a/build/versionize-docs.sh
+++ b/build/versionize-docs.sh
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ if ! ($SED --version 2>&1 | grep -q GNU); then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-echo "+++ Versioning documentation and examples"
+echo "+++ Versioning documentation and examples at ${NEW_VERSION}"
 
 # Update the docs to match this version.
 HTML_PREVIEW_PREFIX="https://htmlpreview.github.io/\?https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes"
diff --git a/release/release.sh b/release/release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..452fd46e402
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release/release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,306 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright 2014 The Kubernetes Authors All rights reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# TODO What does this script do?
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+# TODO Audit echos to make sure they're all consistent.
+# TODO Refactor to remove globals?
+
+function main() {
+  if [ "$#" -gt 3 ]; then
+    usage
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
+  declare -r NEW_VERSION=${1-}
+  # TODO(ihmccreery) Stop calling it githash; it's not a githash.
+  declare -r GITHASH=${2-}
+  DRY_RUN=true
+  if [[ "${3-}" == "--no-dry-run" ]]; then
+    DRY_RUN=false
+  else
+    echo "!!! THIS IS A DRY RUN"
+  fi
+
+  declare -r ALPHA_VERSION_REGEX="^v(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.0-alpha\\.([1-9][0-9]*)$"
+  declare -r OFFICIAL_VERSION_REGEX="^v(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$"
+  declare -r SERIES_VERSION_REGEX="^v(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$"
+  if [[ "${NEW_VERSION}" =~ $ALPHA_VERSION_REGEX ]]; then
+    RELEASE_TYPE='alpha'
+    VERSION_MAJOR="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+    VERSION_MINOR="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
+    VERSION_ALPHA_REV="${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
+    ANCESTOR="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.0-alpha.$((VERSION_ALPHA_REV-1))"
+  elif [[ "${NEW_VERSION}" =~ $OFFICIAL_VERSION_REGEX ]]; then
+    RELEASE_TYPE='official'
+    VERSION_MAJOR="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+    VERSION_MINOR="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
+    VERSION_PATCH="${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
+    ANCESTOR="${NEW_VERSION}-beta"
+    RELEASE_BRANCH="release-${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}"
+  elif [[ "${NEW_VERSION}" =~ $SERIES_VERSION_REGEX ]]; then
+    RELEASE_TYPE='series'
+    VERSION_MAJOR="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+    VERSION_MINOR="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
+    # NOTE: We check the second alpha version, ...-alpha.1, because ...-alpha.0
+    # is the branch point for the previous release cycle, so could provide a
+    # false positive if we accidentally try to release off of the old release
+    # branch.
+    ANCESTOR="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.0-alpha.1"
+    RELEASE_BRANCH="release-${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}"
+  else
+    usage
+    echo
+    echo "!!! You specified an invalid version '${NEW_VERSION}'."
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
+  # Get the git commit from the githash and verify it
+  declare -r GIT_COMMIT_REGEX="^[0-9a-f]{7}$"
+  declare -r GIT_COMMIT=$(echo "${GITHASH}" | awk -F'+' '{print $2}' | head -c7)
+  if ! [[ "${GIT_COMMIT}" =~ $GIT_COMMIT_REGEX ]]; then
+    usage
+    echo
+    echo "!!! You specified an invalid githash '${GITHASH}'."
+    echo "!!! Tried to extract commit, got ${GIT_COMMIT}."
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  echo "Doing ${RELEASE_TYPE} release '${NEW_VERSION}'."
+
+  # Set the default umask for the release. This ensures consistency
+  # across our release builds.
+  #
+  # TODO(ihmccreery): This should be in our build process, not our release
+  # process.
+  declare -r RELEASE_UMASK=${RELEASE_UMASK:-022}
+  umask "${RELEASE_UMASK}"
+
+  declare -r GITHUB="https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.git"
+  declare -r DIR="/tmp/kubernetes-${RELEASE_TYPE}-release-${NEW_VERSION}-$(date +%s)"
+  echo "Cloning from '${GITHUB}'..."
+  git clone "${GITHUB}" "${DIR}"
+
+  # !!! REMINDER !!!
+  #
+  # Past this point, you are dealing with a different clone of the repo at some
+  # version. Don't assume you're executing code from the same repo as this script
+  # is running in. This is a version agnostic process.
+  pushd "${DIR}"
+
+  if [[ "${RELEASE_TYPE}" == 'alpha' ]]; then
+    git checkout "${GIT_COMMIT}"
+    verify-at-git-commit
+    verify-ancestor
+
+    alpha-release "${NEW_VERSION}"
+  elif [[ "${RELEASE_TYPE}" == 'official' ]]; then
+    declare -r RELEASE_BRANCH="release-${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}"
+    declare -r BETA_VERSION="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.$((${VERSION_PATCH}+1))-beta"
+
+    git checkout "${RELEASE_BRANCH}"
+    verify-at-git-commit
+    # TODO uncomment this once we've pushed v1.1.1-beta
+    #verify-ancestor
+
+    official-release "${NEW_VERSION}"
+    beta-release "${BETA_VERSION}"
+  else # [[ "${RELEASE_TYPE}" == 'series' ]]
+    declare -r RELEASE_BRANCH="release-${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}"
+    declare -r ALPHA_VERSION="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.$((${VERSION_MINOR}+1)).0-alpha.0"
+    declare -r BETA_VERSION="v${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.0-beta"
+
+    git checkout "${GIT_COMMIT}"
+    verify-at-git-commit
+    verify-ancestor
+
+    # TODO (Fix versioning.md if you don't do this.)  We maybe could actually do
+    # the alpha rev (in a series release) at HEAD, and patch the version/base.go
+    # logic then.  We'd then have some part of the tree between the branch of
+    # vX.Y series and the vX.(Y+1).0-alpha.0 tag, but I don't think that's a
+    # problem.
+    alpha-release "${ALPHA_VERSION}"
+
+    echo "Branching ${RELEASE_BRANCH}."
+    git checkout -b "${RELEASE_BRANCH}"
+
+    beta-release "${BETA_VERSION}"
+  fi
+
+  cleanup
+}
+
+function usage() {
+  echo "Usage: ${0} <version> <githash> [--no-dry-run]"
+  echo
+  echo "See docs/devel/releasing.md for more info."
+}
+
+function alpha-release() {
+  local -r alpha_version="${1}"
+
+  echo "Doing an alpha release of ${alpha_version}."
+
+  echo "Tagging ${alpha_version} at $(git rev-parse --short HEAD)."
+  git tag -a -m "Kubernetes pre-release ${alpha_version}" "${alpha_version}"
+  git-push "${alpha_version}"
+  build
+  # TODO prompt for GitHub bits
+  echo "FAKE prompt GitHub bits for ${alpha_version}"
+}
+
+function beta-release() {
+  local -r beta_version="${1}"
+
+  echo "Doing a beta release of ${beta_version}."
+
+  # TODO We need to rev something so that we have a separate commit on the
+  # release-X.Y branch, since we don't want master to pick up with beta tag.
+  # TODO rev-docs and/or version?
+  versionize-docs-and-commit
+  rev-version-and-commit
+
+  echo "Tagging ${beta_version} at $(git rev-parse --short HEAD)."
+  git tag -a -m "Kubernetes pre-release ${beta_version}" "${beta_version}"
+  git-push "${beta_version}"
+  build
+  # TODO prompt for GitHub bits
+  echo "FAKE prompt GitHub bits for ${beta_version}"
+}
+
+function official-release() {
+  local -r official_version="${1}"
+
+  echo "Doing an official release of ${official_version}."
+
+  # TODO rev-docs and/or version?
+  versionize-docs-and-commit
+  rev-version-and-commit
+
+  echo "Tagging ${official_version} at $(git rev-parse --short HEAD)."
+  git tag -a -m "Kubernetes release ${official_version}" "${official_version}"
+  git-push "${official_version}"
+  build
+  # TODO prompt for GitHub bits
+  echo "FAKE prompt GitHub bits for ${official_version}"
+}
+
+function verify-at-git-commit() {
+  echo "Verifying we are at ${GIT_COMMIT}."
+  if [[ $(git rev-parse --short HEAD) != ${GIT_COMMIT} ]]; then
+    echo "!!! We are not at commit ${GIT_COMMIT}!"
+    cleanup
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
+function verify-ancestor() {
+  # Check to make sure the/a previous version is an ancestor.
+  echo "Checking that previous version '${ANCESTOR}' is an ancestor."
+  if ! git merge-base --is-ancestor "${ANCESTOR}" HEAD; then
+    echo "!!! Previous version '${ANCESTOR}' is not an ancestor!"
+    cleanup
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
+function git-push() {
+  if ${DRY_RUN}; then
+    echo "FAKE git push "$@""
+  else
+    echo "OH NO!!! YOU'RE NOT REALLY IN DRY_RUN! git push "$@""
+    echo "You don't really want to push, do you?"
+    # git push "$@"
+  fi
+}
+
+# TODO(ihmccreery): Review and fix this function.
+function versionize-docs-and-commit() {
+  echo "FAKE versionize-docs-and-commit"
+  # # NOTE: This is using versionize-docs.sh at the release point.
+  # ./build/versionize-docs.sh ${NEW_VERSION}
+  # git commit -am "Versioning docs and examples for ${VERSION_MAJOR}.${VERSION_MINOR}.${VERSION_PATCH}"
+}
+
+# TODO(ihmccreery): Review and fix this function.
+function rev-version-and-commit() {
+  echo "FAKE rev-version-and-commit"
+  # SED=sed
+  # if which gsed &>/dev/null; then
+  #   SED=gsed
+  # fi
+  # if ! ($SED --version 2>&1 | grep -q GNU); then
+  #   echo "!!! GNU sed is required.  If on OS X, use 'brew install gnu-sed'."
+  #   cleanup
+  #   exit 1
+  # fi
+
+  # VERSION_FILE="./pkg/version/base.go"
+
+  # GIT_MINOR="${VERSION_MINOR}.${VERSION_PATCH}"
+  # echo "+++ Updating to ${NEW_VERSION}"
+  # $SED -ri -e "s/gitMajor\s+string = \"[^\"]*\"/gitMajor string = \"${VERSION_MAJOR}\"/" "${VERSION_FILE}"
+  # $SED -ri -e "s/gitMinor\s+string = \"[^\"]*\"/gitMinor string = \"${GIT_MINOR}\"/" "${VERSION_FILE}"
+  # $SED -ri -e "s/gitVersion\s+string = \"[^\"]*\"/gitVersion string = \"$NEW_VERSION-${release_branch}+\$Format:%h\$\"/" "${VERSION_FILE}"
+  # gofmt -s -w "${VERSION_FILE}"
+
+  # echo "+++ Committing version change"
+  # git add "${VERSION_FILE}"
+  # git commit -m "Kubernetes version ${NEW_VERSION}"
+}
+
+# TODO What's in this step?
+function build() {
+  echo "FAKE build"
+  # TODO Do we need to publish the build to GCS?
+}
+
+function cleanup() {
+  if ${DRY_RUN}; then
+    echo "Dry run:"
+    echo "  pushd ${DIR}"
+    echo "to have a look around."
+  else
+    popd
+  fi
+}
+
+main "$@"
+
+# echo ""
+# echo "Success you must now:"
+# echo ""
+# echo "- Push the tags:"
+# echo "   git push ${push_url} ${NEW_VERSION}"
+# echo "   git push ${push_url} ${beta_ver}"
+# 
+# if [[ "${VERSION_PATCH}" == "0" ]]; then
+#   echo "- Push the alpha tag:"
+#   echo "   git push ${push_url} ${alpha_ver}"
+#   echo "- Push the new release branch:"
+#   echo "   git push ${push_url} ${current_branch}:${release_branch}"
+#   echo "- DO NOTHING TO MASTER. You were done with master when you pushed the alpha tag."
+# else
+#   echo "- Send branch: ${current_branch} as a PR to ${release_branch} <-- NOTE THIS"
+#   echo "- In the contents of the PR, include the PRs in the release:"
+#   echo "    hack/cherry_pick_list.sh ${current_branch}^1"
+#   echo "  This helps cross-link PRs to patch releases they're part of in GitHub."
+#   echo "- Have someone review the PR. This is a mechanical review to ensure it contains"
+#   echo "  the ${NEW_VERSION} commit, which was tagged at ${newtag}."
+# fi