diff --git a/tools/pg-release.py b/tools/pg-release.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ac32b199
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/pg-release.py
@@ -0,0 +1,252 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+import os, sys, argparse, random
+from shell import shell, ssh
+
+
+
+description="Build release packages for pyqtgraph."
+
+epilog = """
+Package build is done in several steps:
+
+    * Attempt to clone branch release-x.y.z from source-repo
+    * Merge release branch into master
+    * Write new version numbers into the source
+    * Roll over unreleased CHANGELOG entries
+    * Commit and tag new release
+    * Build HTML documentation
+    * Build source package
+    * Build deb packages (if running on Linux)
+    * Build Windows exe installers
+
+Release packages may be published by using the --publish flag:
+
+    * Uploads release files to website
+    * Pushes tagged git commit to github
+    * Uploads source package to pypi
+
+Building source packages requires:
+
+    * 
+    * 
+    * python-sphinx
+
+Building deb packages requires several dependencies:
+
+    * build-essential
+    * python-all, python3-all
+    * python-stdeb, python3-stdeb
+    
+Note: building windows .exe files should be possible on any OS. However, 
+Debian/Ubuntu systems do not include the necessary wininst*.exe files; these
+must be manually copied from the Python source to the distutils/command 
+submodule path (/usr/lib/pythonX.X/distutils/command). Additionally, it may be
+necessary to rename (or copy / link) wininst-9.0-amd64.exe to 
+wininst-6.0-amd64.exe.
+
+"""
+
+path = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..'))
+build_dir = os.path.join(path, 'release-build')
+pkg_dir = os.path.join(path, 'release-packages')
+
+ap = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=description, epilog=epilog, formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter)
+ap.add_argument('version', help='The x.y.z version to generate release packages for. '
+                                'There must be a corresponding pyqtgraph-x.y.z branch in the source repository.')
+ap.add_argument('--publish', metavar='', help='Publish previously built package files (must be stored in pkg-dir/version) and tagged release commit (from build-dir).', action='store_const', const=True, default=False)
+ap.add_argument('--source-repo', metavar='', help='Repository from which release and master branches will be cloned. Default is the repo containing this script.', default=path)
+ap.add_argument('--build-dir', metavar='', help='Directory where packages will be staged and built. Default is source_root/release-build.', default=build_dir)
+ap.add_argument('--pkg-dir', metavar='', help='Directory where packages will be stored. Default is source_root/release-packages.', default=pkg_dir)
+ap.add_argument('--skip-pip-test', metavar='', help='Skip testing pip install.', action='store_const', const=True, default=False)
+ap.add_argument('--no-deb', metavar='', help='Skip building Debian packages.', action='store_const', const=True, default=False)
+ap.add_argument('--no-exe', metavar='', help='Skip building Windows exe installers.', action='store_const', const=True, default=False)
+
+
+
+def build(args):
+    if os.path.exists(args.build_dir):
+        sys.stderr.write("Please remove the build directory %s before proceeding, or specify a different path with --build-dir.\n" % args.build_dir)
+        sys.exit(-1)
+    if os.path.exists(args.pkg_dir):
+        sys.stderr.write("Please remove the package directory %s before proceeding, or specify a different path with --pkg-dir.\n" % args.pkg_dir)
+        sys.exit(-1)
+        
+    # Clone source repository and tag the release branch
+    shell('''
+        # Clone and merge release branch into previous master
+        mkdir -p {build_dir}
+        cd {build_dir}
+        rm -rf pyqtgraph
+        git clone --depth 1 -b master {source_repo} pyqtgraph
+        cd pyqtgraph
+        git checkout -b release-{version}
+        git pull {source_repo} release-{version}
+        git checkout master
+        git merge --no-ff --no-commit release-{version}
+        
+        # Write new version number into the source
+        sed -i "s/__version__ = .*/__version__ = '{version}'/" pyqtgraph/__init__.py
+        sed -i "s/version = .*/version = '{version}'/" doc/source/conf.py
+        sed -i "s/release = .*/release = '{version}'/" doc/source/conf.py
+        
+        # make sure changelog mentions unreleased changes
+        grep "pyqtgraph-{version}.*unreleased.*" CHANGELOG    
+        sed -i "s/pyqtgraph-{version}.*unreleased.*/pyqtgraph-{version}/" CHANGELOG
+
+        # Commit and tag new release
+        git commit -a -m "PyQtGraph release {version}"
+        git tag pyqtgraph-{version}
+
+        # Build HTML documentation
+        cd doc
+            make clean
+            make html
+        cd ..
+        find ./ -name "*.pyc" -delete
+
+        # package source distribution
+        python setup.py sdist
+
+        mkdir -p {pkg_dir}
+        cp dist/*.tar.gz {pkg_dir}
+
+        # source package build complete.
+    '''.format(**args.__dict__))
+
+        
+    if args.skip_pip_test:
+        args.pip_test = 'skipped'
+    else:
+        shell('''
+            # test pip install source distribution
+            rm -rf release-{version}-virtenv
+            virtualenv --system-site-packages release-{version}-virtenv
+            . release-{version}-virtenv/bin/activate
+            echo "PATH: $PATH"
+            echo "ENV: $VIRTUAL_ENV" 
+            pip install --no-index --no-deps dist/pyqtgraph-{version}.tar.gz
+            deactivate
+            
+            # pip install test passed
+        '''.format(**args.__dict__))
+        args.pip_test = 'passed'
+
+
+    if 'linux' in sys.platform and not args.no_deb: 
+        shell('''
+            # build deb packages
+            cd {build_dir}/pyqtgraph
+            python setup.py --command-packages=stdeb.command sdist_dsc
+            cd deb_dist/pyqtgraph-{version}
+            sed -i "s/^Depends:.*/Depends: python (>= 2.6), python-qt4 | python-pyside, python-numpy/" debian/control    
+            dpkg-buildpackage
+            cd ../../
+            mv deb_dist {pkg_dir}/pyqtgraph-{version}-deb
+            
+            # deb package build complete.
+        '''.format(**args.__dict__))
+        args.deb_status = 'built'
+    else:
+        args.deb_status = 'skipped'
+        
+
+    if not args.no_exe:
+        shell("""
+            # Build windows executables
+            cd {build_dir}/pyqtgraph
+            python setup.py build bdist_wininst --plat-name=win32
+            python setup.py build bdist_wininst --plat-name=win-amd64
+            cp dist/*.exe {pkg_dir}
+        """.format(**args.__dict__))
+        args.exe_status = 'built'    
+    else:
+        args.exe_status = 'skipped'
+
+
+    print(unindent("""
+
+    ======== Build complete. =========
+
+    * Source package:     built
+    * Pip install test:   {pip_test}
+    * Debian packages:    {deb_status}
+    * Windows installers: {exe_status}
+    * Package files in    {pkg_dir}
+
+    Next steps to publish:
+    
+    * Test all packages
+    * Run script again with --publish
+
+    """).format(**args.__dict__))
+
+
+def publish(args):
+
+
+    if not os.path.isfile(os.path.expanduser('~/.pypirc')):
+        print(unindent("""
+            Missing ~/.pypirc file. Should look like:
+            -----------------------------------------
+
+                [distutils]
+                index-servers =
+                    pypi
+
+                [pypi]
+                username:your_username
+                password:your_password
+
+        """))
+        sys.exit(-1)
+
+    ### Upload everything to server
+    shell("""
+        # Uploading documentation..
+        cd {build_dir}/pyqtgraph
+        rsync -rv doc/build/* pyqtgraph.org:/www/code/pyqtgraph/pyqtgraph/documentation/build/
+
+        # Uploading release packages to website
+        rsync -v {pkg_dir}/{version} pyqtgraph.org:/www/code/pyqtgraph/downloads/
+
+        # Push to github
+        git push --tags https://github.com/pyqtgraph/pyqtgraph master:master
+
+        # Upload to pypi..
+        python setup.py sdist upload
+
+    """.format(**args.__dict__))
+
+    print(unindent("""
+
+    ======== Upload complete. =========
+
+    Next steps to publish:
+        - update website
+        - mailing list announcement
+        - new conda recipe (http://conda.pydata.org/docs/build.html)
+        - contact deb maintainer (gianfranco costamagna)
+        - other package maintainers?
+
+    """).format(**args.__dict__))
+
+
+def unindent(msg):
+    ind = 1e6
+    lines = msg.split('\n')
+    for line in lines:
+        if len(line.strip()) == 0:
+            continue
+        ind = min(ind, len(line) - len(line.lstrip()))
+    return '\n'.join([line[ind:] for line in lines])
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    args = ap.parse_args()
+    args.build_dir = os.path.abspath(args.build_dir)
+    args.pkg_dir = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(args.pkg_dir), args.version)
+
+    if args.publish:
+        publish(args)
+    else:
+        build(args)
diff --git a/tools/release_instructions.md b/tools/release_instructions.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b3b53efa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release_instructions.md
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+PyQtGraph Release Procedure
+---------------------------
+
+1. Create a release-x.x.x branch
+
+2. Run pyqtgraph/tools/pg-release.py script (this has only been tested on linux)
+    - creates clone of master
+    - merges release branch into master
+    - updates version numbers in code
+    - creates pyqtgraph-x.x.x tag
+    - creates release commit
+    - builds documentation
+    - builds source package
+    - tests pip install
+    - builds windows .exe installers (note: it may be necessary to manually
+      copy wininst*.exe files from the python source packages)
+    - builds deb package (note: official debian packages are built elsewhere;
+      these locally-built deb packages may be phased out)
+
+3. test build files
+    - test setup.py, pip on OSX
+    - test setup.py, pip, 32/64 exe on windows
+    - test setup.py, pip, deb on linux (py2, py3)
+    
+4. Run pg-release.py script again with --publish flag
+    - website upload
+    - github push + release
+    - pip upload
+
+5. publish
+    - update website
+    - mailing list announcement
+    - new conda recipe  (http://conda.pydata.org/docs/build.html)
+    - contact various package maintainers
diff --git a/tools/setVersion.py b/tools/setVersion.py
deleted file mode 100644
index b62aca01..00000000
--- a/tools/setVersion.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
-import re, os, sys
-
-version = sys.argv[1]
-
-replace = [
-    ("pyqtgraph/__init__.py", r"__version__ = .*", "__version__ = '%s'" % version),
-    #("setup.py", r"    version=.*,", "    version='%s'," % version),  # setup.py automatically detects version
-    ("doc/source/conf.py", r"version = .*", "version = '%s'" % version),
-    ("doc/source/conf.py", r"release = .*", "release = '%s'" % version),
-    #("tools/debian/control", r"^Version: .*", "Version: %s" % version)
-    ]
-
-path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), '..')
-
-for filename, search, sub in replace:
-    filename = os.path.join(path, filename)
-    data = open(filename, 'r').read()
-    if re.search(search, data) is None:
-        print('Error: Search expression "%s" not found in file %s.' % (search, filename))
-        os._exit(1)
-    open(filename, 'w').write(re.sub(search, sub, data))
-    
-print("Updated version strings to %s" % version)
-
-
-
diff --git a/tools/shell.py b/tools/shell.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..76667980
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/shell.py
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+import os, sys
+import subprocess as sp
+
+
+def shell(cmd):
+    """Run each line of a shell script; raise an exception if any line returns
+    a nonzero value.
+    """
+    pin, pout = os.pipe()
+    proc = sp.Popen('/bin/bash', stdin=sp.PIPE)
+    for line in cmd.split('\n'):
+        line = line.strip()
+        if line.startswith('#'):
+            print('\033[33m> ' + line + '\033[0m')
+        else:
+            print('\033[32m> ' + line + '\033[0m')
+        if line.startswith('cd '):
+            os.chdir(line[3:])
+        proc.stdin.write((line + '\n').encode('utf-8'))
+        proc.stdin.write(('echo $? 1>&%d\n' % pout).encode('utf-8'))
+        ret = ""
+        while not ret.endswith('\n'):
+            ret += os.read(pin, 1)
+        ret = int(ret.strip())
+        if ret != 0:
+            print("\033[31mLast command returned %d; bailing out.\033[0m" % ret)
+            sys.exit(-1)
+    proc.stdin.close()
+    proc.wait()
+
+
+def ssh(host, cmd):
+    """Run commands on a remote host by ssh.
+    """
+    proc = sp.Popen(['ssh', host], stdin=sp.PIPE)
+    proc.stdin.write(cmd)
+    proc.wait()
+