diff --git a/docs/api-reference/extensions/v1beta1/definitions.html b/docs/api-reference/extensions/v1beta1/definitions.html
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/docs/api-reference/extensions/v1beta1/operations.html b/docs/api-reference/extensions/v1beta1/operations.html
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/docs/api-reference/v1/definitions.html b/docs/api-reference/v1/definitions.html
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/docs/api-reference/v1/operations.html b/docs/api-reference/v1/operations.html
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/hack/gen-swagger-doc/Dockerfile b/hack/gen-swagger-doc/Dockerfile
index 27e2d3b9b13..9ad26afcc61 100644
--- a/hack/gen-swagger-doc/Dockerfile
+++ b/hack/gen-swagger-doc/Dockerfile
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ RUN wget https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.5-bin.zip
 RUN mkdir build/
 RUN unzip gradle-2.5-bin.zip -d build/
 
+RUN mkdir gradle-cache/
+ENV GRADLE_USER_HOME=/gradle-cache
+
 COPY build.gradle build/
 COPY gen-swagger-docs.sh build/
 
@@ -17,5 +20,7 @@ RUN wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/master/api/swag
 RUN build/gen-swagger-docs.sh v1 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/master/pkg/api/v1/register.go
 RUN rm /output/*
 RUN rm /swagger-source/*
+RUN chmod -R 777 build/
+RUN chmod -R 777 gradle-cache/
 
 ENTRYPOINT ["build/gen-swagger-docs.sh"]
diff --git a/hack/gen-swagger-doc/gen-swagger-docs.sh b/hack/gen-swagger-doc/gen-swagger-docs.sh
index 3ed3a9c0e33..91f39cf5a0a 100755
--- a/hack/gen-swagger-doc/gen-swagger-docs.sh
+++ b/hack/gen-swagger-doc/gen-swagger-docs.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ set -o errexit
 set -o nounset
 set -o pipefail
 
-cd /build/
+cd /build
 
 wget "$2" -O register.go
 
diff --git a/hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh b/hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh
index 8f5806c8740..0325ca74490 100755
--- a/hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh
+++ b/hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh
@@ -22,14 +22,24 @@ set -o nounset
 set -o pipefail
 
 KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
-REPO_DIR=${REPO_DIR:-"${PWD}/${KUBE_ROOT}"}
+source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
+kube::golang::setup_env
+kube::util::ensure-temp-dir
+
+#KUBE_ROOT should be an absolute path now that we have run kube::golang::setup_env.
+REPO_DIR=${REPO_DIR:-"${KUBE_ROOT}"}
 DEFAULT_OUTPUT_PATH="${REPO_DIR}/docs/api-reference"
 OUTPUT=${1:-${DEFAULT_OUTPUT_PATH}}
+OUTPUT_TEMP="${KUBE_TEMP}/generated_html"
 
 echo "Generating api reference docs at ${OUTPUT}"
 
 V1_PATH="${OUTPUT}/v1/"
-V1BETA1_PATH="${OUTPUT}/extensions/v1beta1"
+V1_TEMP_PATH="${OUTPUT_TEMP}/v1/"
+mkdir -p ${V1_TEMP_PATH}
+V1BETA1_PATH="${OUTPUT}/extensions/v1beta1/"
+V1BETA1_TEMP_PATH="${OUTPUT_TEMP}/extensions/v1beta1/"
+mkdir -p ${V1BETA1_TEMP_PATH}
 SWAGGER_PATH="${REPO_DIR}/api/swagger-spec/"
 
 echo "Reading swagger spec from: ${SWAGGER_PATH}"
@@ -37,12 +47,40 @@ echo "Reading swagger spec from: ${SWAGGER_PATH}"
 mkdir -p $V1_PATH
 mkdir -p $V1BETA1_PATH
 
-docker run --rm -v $V1_PATH:/output:z -v ${SWAGGER_PATH}:/swagger-source:z gcr.io/google_containers/gen-swagger-docs:v3 \
+docker run -u $(id -u) --rm -v $V1_TEMP_PATH:/output:z -v ${SWAGGER_PATH}:/swagger-source:z gcr.io/google_containers/gen-swagger-docs:v4 \
     v1 \
     https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/master/pkg/api/v1/register.go
 
-docker run --rm -v $V1BETA1_PATH:/output:z -v ${SWAGGER_PATH}:/swagger-source:z gcr.io/google_containers/gen-swagger-docs:v3 \
+docker run -u $(id -u) --rm -v $V1BETA1_TEMP_PATH:/output:z -v ${SWAGGER_PATH}:/swagger-source:z gcr.io/google_containers/gen-swagger-docs:v4 \
     v1beta1 \
     https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/master/pkg/apis/extensions/v1beta1/register.go
 
+# Check if we actually changed anything
+pushd "${OUTPUT_TEMP}" > /dev/null
+touch .generated_html
+find . -type f | cut -sd / -f 2- | LC_ALL=C sort > .generated_html
+popd > /dev/null
+
+while read file; do
+  if [[ -e "${OUTPUT}/${file}" && -e "${OUTPUT_TEMP}/${file}" ]]; then
+    echo "comparing ${OUTPUT}/${file} with ${OUTPUT_TEMP}/${file}"
+    # Filter all munges from original content.
+    original=$(cat "${OUTPUT}/${file}")
+    generated=$(cat "${OUTPUT_TEMP}/${file}")
+
+    # Filter out meaningless lines with timestamps
+    original=$(echo "${original}" | grep -v "Last updated" || :)
+    generated=$(echo "${generated}" | grep -v "Last updated" || :)
+
+    # By now, the contents should be normalized and stripped of any
+    # auto-managed content.  
+    if diff -Bw >/dev/null <(echo "${original}") <(echo "${generated}"); then
+      # actual contents same, overwrite generated with original.
+      cp "${OUTPUT}/${file}" "${OUTPUT_TEMP}/${file}"
+    fi
+  fi
+done <"${OUTPUT_TEMP}/.generated_html"
+
+cp -af "${OUTPUT_TEMP}"/* "${OUTPUT}"
+
 # ex: ts=2 sw=2 et filetype=sh