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..5753b98d11c 100755
--- a/hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh
+++ b/hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh
@@ -22,27 +22,71 @@ set -o nounset
 set -o pipefail
 
 KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
-REPO_DIR=${REPO_DIR:-"${PWD}/${KUBE_ROOT}"}
-DEFAULT_OUTPUT_PATH="${REPO_DIR}/docs/api-reference"
-OUTPUT=${1:-${DEFAULT_OUTPUT_PATH}}
+source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
+kube::golang::setup_env
 
-echo "Generating api reference docs at ${OUTPUT}"
+DEFAULT_OUTPUT="${KUBE_ROOT}/docs/api-reference"
+OUTPUT=${1:-${DEFAULT_OUTPUT}}
+# Use REPO_DIR if provided so we can set it to the host-resolvable path
+# to the repo root if we are running this script from a container with
+# docker mounted in as a volume.
+# We pass the host output dir as the source dir to `docker run -v`, but use
+# the regular one to compute diff (they will be the same if running this
+# test on the host, potentially different if running in a container).
+REPO_DIR=${REPO_DIR:-"${KUBE_ROOT}"}
+TMP_SUBPATH="_output/generated_html"
+OUTPUT_TMP_IN_HOST="${REPO_DIR}/${TMP_SUBPATH}"
+OUTPUT_TMP="${KUBE_ROOT}/${TMP_SUBPATH}"
 
-V1_PATH="${OUTPUT}/v1/"
-V1BETA1_PATH="${OUTPUT}/extensions/v1beta1"
+echo "Generating api reference docs at ${OUTPUT_TMP}"
+
+V1_TMP_IN_HOST="${OUTPUT_TMP_IN_HOST}/v1/"
+V1_TMP="${OUTPUT_TMP}/v1/"
+mkdir -p ${V1_TMP}
+V1BETA1_TMP_IN_HOST="${OUTPUT_TMP_IN_HOST}/extensions/v1beta1/"
+V1BETA1_TMP="${OUTPUT_TMP}/extensions/v1beta1/"
+mkdir -p ${V1BETA1_TMP}
 SWAGGER_PATH="${REPO_DIR}/api/swagger-spec/"
 
 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_TMP_IN_HOST:/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_TMP_IN_HOST:/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 "${OUTPUT_TMP}" > /dev/null
+touch .generated_html
+find . -type f | cut -sd / -f 2- | LC_ALL=C sort > .generated_html
+popd > /dev/null
+
+while read file; do
+  if [[ -e "${OUTPUT}/${file}" && -e "${OUTPUT_TMP}/${file}" ]]; then
+    echo "comparing ${OUTPUT}/${file} with ${OUTPUT_TMP}/${file}"
+    # Filter all munges from original content.
+    original=$(cat "${OUTPUT}/${file}")
+    generated=$(cat "${OUTPUT_TMP}/${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}" "${OUTPUT_TMP}/${file}"
+    fi
+  fi
+done <"${OUTPUT_TMP}/.generated_html"
+
+echo "Moving api reference docs from ${OUTPUT_TMP} to ${OUTPUT}"
+
+cp -af "${OUTPUT_TMP}"/* "${OUTPUT}"
+rm -r ${OUTPUT_TMP}
+
 # ex: ts=2 sw=2 et filetype=sh
diff --git a/hack/verify-api-reference-docs.sh b/hack/verify-api-reference-docs.sh
index f718836a4ad..af93a63a4d4 100755
--- a/hack/verify-api-reference-docs.sh
+++ b/hack/verify-api-reference-docs.sh
@@ -26,23 +26,16 @@ source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
 kube::golang::setup_env
 
 API_REFERENCE_DOCS_ROOT="${KUBE_ROOT}/docs/api-reference"
-# Use REPO_DIR if provided so we can set it to the host-resolvable path
-# to the repo root if we are running this script from a container with
-# docker mounted in as a volume.
-# We pass the host output dir to update-api-reference-docs.sh, but use
-# the regular one to compute diff (they will be the same if running this
-# test on the host, potentially different if running in a container).
-REPO_DIR=${REPO_DIR:-"${KUBE_ROOT}"}
-HOST_OUTPUT_DIR="${REPO_DIR}/_tmp/api-reference"
-TMP_OUTPUT_DIR="${KUBE_ROOT}/_tmp/api-reference"
+OUTPUT_DIR="${KUBE_ROOT}/_tmp/api-reference"
+mkdir -p ${OUTPUT_DIR}
 TMP_ROOT="${KUBE_ROOT}/_tmp"
 
 # Generate API reference docs in tmp.
-"./hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh" "${HOST_OUTPUT_DIR}"
+"./hack/update-api-reference-docs.sh" "${OUTPUT_DIR}"
 
 echo "diffing ${API_REFERENCE_DOCS_ROOT} against freshly generated docs"
 ret=0
-diff -Naupr -I 'Last update' --exclude=*.md "${API_REFERENCE_DOCS_ROOT}" "${TMP_OUTPUT_DIR}" || ret=$?
+diff -Naupr -I 'Last update' --exclude=*.md "${API_REFERENCE_DOCS_ROOT}" "${OUTPUT_DIR}" || ret=$?
 rm -rf "${TMP_ROOT}"
 if [[ $ret -eq 0 ]]
 then