diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..db5ca09b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,193 @@
+#!/bin/zsh
+# This script is used to prepare a new release of i3.
+
+export RELEASE_VERSION="4.9.1"
+export PREVIOUS_VERSION="4.9"
+export RELEASE_BRANCH="master"
+
+if [ ! -e "../i3.github.io" ]
+then
+	echo "../i3.github.io does not exist."
+	echo "Use git clone git://github.com/i3/i3.github.io"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ ! -e "RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}" ]
+then
+	echo "RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION} not found."
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+if git diff-files --quiet --exit-code debian/changelog
+then
+	echo "Expected debian/changelog to be changed (containing the changelog for ${RELEASE_VERSION})."
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+eval $(gpg-agent --daemon)
+export GPG_AGENT_INFO
+
+################################################################################
+# Section 1: update git and build the release tarball
+################################################################################
+
+STARTDIR=$PWD
+
+TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
+cd $TMPDIR
+if ! wget http://i3wm.org/downloads/i3-${PREVIOUS_VERSION}.tar.bz2; then
+	echo "Could not download i3-${PREVIOUS_VERSION}.tar.bz2 (required for comparing files)."
+	exit 1
+fi
+git clone --quiet --branch "${RELEASE_BRANCH}" file://${STARTDIR}
+cd i3
+if [ ! -e "${STARTDIR}/RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}" ]; then
+	echo "Required file RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION} not found."
+	exit 1
+fi
+git checkout -b release-${RELEASE_VERSION}
+cp "${STARTDIR}/RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}" "RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+git add RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}
+git rm RELEASE-NOTES-${PREVIOUS_VERSION}
+sed -i "s,<refmiscinfo class=\"version\">[^<]*</refmiscinfo>,<refmiscinfo class=\"version\">${RELEASE_VERSION}</refmiscinfo>,g" man/asciidoc.conf
+git commit -a -m "release i3 ${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+git tag "${RELEASE_VERSION}" -m "release i3 ${RELEASE_VERSION}" --sign --local-user=0x4AC8EE1D
+
+make dist
+
+echo "Differences in the release tarball file lists:"
+
+diff -u \
+	<(tar tf ../i3-${PREVIOUS_VERSION}.tar.bz2 | sed "s,i3-${PREVIOUS_VERSION}/,,g" | sort) \
+	<(tar tf    i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2  | sed "s,i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}/,,g"  | sort) \
+	| colordiff
+
+if ! tar xf i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2 --to-stdout --strip-components=1 i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}/I3_VERSION | grep -q "^${RELEASE_VERSION} "
+then
+	echo "I3_VERSION file does not start with ${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+gpg --armor -b i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2
+
+if [ "${RELEASE_BRANCH}" = "master" ]; then
+	git checkout master
+	git merge --no-ff release-${RELEASE_VERSION} -m "Merge branch 'release-${RELEASE_VERSION}'"
+	git checkout next
+	git merge --no-ff master -m "Merge branch 'master' into next"
+else
+	git checkout next
+	git merge --no-ff release-${RELEASE_VERSION} -m "Merge branch 'release-${RELEASE_VERSION}'"
+	git checkout master
+	git merge --no-ff next -m "Merge branch 'next' into master"
+fi
+
+################################################################################
+# Section 2: Debian packaging
+################################################################################
+
+cd "${TMPDIR}"
+mkdir debian
+
+# Copy over the changelog because we expect it to be locally modified in the
+# start directory.
+cp "${STARTDIR}/debian/changelog" i3/debian/changelog
+
+cat > ${TMPDIR}/Dockerfile <<EOT
+FROM debian:sid
+RUN sed -i 's,^deb \(.*\),deb \1\ndeb-src \1,g' /etc/apt/sources.list
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y dpkg-dev devscripts
+COPY i3/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2 /usr/src/i3-wm_${RELEASE_VERSION}.orig.tar.bz2
+WORKDIR /usr/src/
+RUN tar xf i3-wm_${RELEASE_VERSION}.orig.tar.bz2
+WORKDIR /usr/src/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}
+COPY i3/debian /usr/src/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}/debian/
+RUN mkdir debian/source
+RUN echo '3.0 (quilt)' > debian/source/format
+WORKDIR /usr/src
+RUN mk-build-deps --install --remove --tool 'apt-get --no-install-recommends -y' i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}/debian/control
+WORKDIR /usr/src/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}
+RUN dpkg-buildpackage -sa -j8
+EOT
+
+CONTAINER_NAME=$(echo "i3-${TMPDIR}" | sed 's,/,,g')
+docker build -t i3 .
+for file in $(docker run --name "${CONTAINER_NAME}" i3 /bin/sh -c "ls /usr/src/i3*_${RELEASE_VERSION}*")
+do
+	docker cp "${CONTAINER_NAME}:${file}" ${TMPDIR}/debian/
+done
+
+echo "Content of resulting package’s .changes file:"
+cat ${TMPDIR}/debian/*.changes
+
+# debsign is in devscripts, which is available in fedora and debian
+debsign -k4AC8EE1D ${TMPDIR}/debian/*.changes
+
+# TODO: docker cleanup
+
+################################################################################
+# Section 3: website
+################################################################################
+
+cd ${TMPDIR}
+git clone --quiet ${STARTDIR}/../i3.github.io
+cd i3.github.io
+cp ${TMPDIR}/i3/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2* downloads/
+git add downloads/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2*
+cp ${TMPDIR}/i3/RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION} downloads/RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}.txt
+git add downloads/RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}.txt
+sed -i "s,<h2>Documentation for i3 v[^<]*</h2>,<h2>Documentation for i3 v${RELEASE_VERSION}</h2>,g" docs/index.html
+sed -i "s,<span style=\"margin-left: 2em; color: #c0c0c0\">[^<]*</span>,<span style=\"margin-left: 2em; color: #c0c0c0\">${RELEASE_VERSION}</span>,g" index.html
+sed -i "s,The current stable version is .*$,The current stable version is ${RELEASE_VERSION}.,g" downloads/index.html
+sed -i "s,<tbody>,<tbody>\n  <tr>\n    <td>${RELEASE_VERSION}</td>\n    <td><a href=\"/downloads/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2\">i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2</a></td>\n    <td>$(ls -lh ../i3/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2 | awk -F " " {'print $5'} | sed 's/K$/ KiB/g')</td>\n    <td><a href=\"/downloads/i3-${RELEASE_VERSION}.tar.bz2.asc\">signature</a></td>\n    <td>$(date +'%Y-%m-%d')</td>\n    <td><a href=\"/downloads/RELEASE-NOTES-${RELEASE_VERSION}.txt\">release notes</a></td>\n  </tr>\n,g" downloads/index.html
+
+git commit -a -m "add ${RELEASE_VERSION} release"
+
+mkdir docs/${PREVIOUS_VERSION}
+tar cf - '--exclude=[0-9]\.[0-9e]*' docs | tar xf - --strip-components=1 -C docs/${PREVIOUS_VERSION}
+git add docs/${PREVIOUS_VERSION}
+git commit -a -m "save docs for ${PREVIOUS_VERSION}"
+
+for i in $(find _docs -maxdepth 1 -and -type f -and \! -regex ".*\.\(html\|man\)$" -and \! -name "Makefile")
+do
+	base="$(basename $i)"
+	[ -e "${STARTDIR}/docs/${base}" ] && cp "${STARTDIR}/docs/${base}" "_docs/${base}"
+done
+
+(cd _docs && make)
+
+for i in $(find _docs -maxdepth 1 -and -type f -and \! -regex ".*\.\(html\|man\)$" -and \! -name "Makefile")
+do
+	base="$(basename $i)"
+	[ -e "${STARTDIR}/docs/${base}" ] && cp "_docs/${base}.html" docs/
+done
+
+git commit -a -m "update docs for ${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+
+################################################################################
+# Section 4: final push instructions
+################################################################################
+
+echo "As a final sanity check, install the debian package and see whether i3 works."
+
+echo "When satisfied, run:"
+echo "  cd ${TMPDIR}/i3"
+echo "  git checkout next"
+echo "  vi debian/changelog"
+# TODO: can we just set up the remote spec properly?
+echo "  git push git@github.com:i3/i3 next"
+echo "  git push git@github.com:i3/i3 master"
+echo "  git push git@github.com:i3/i3 --tags"
+echo ""
+echo "  cd ${TMPDIR}/i3.github.io"
+# TODO: can we just set up the remote spec properly?
+echo "  git push git@github.com:i3/i3.github.io master"
+echo ""
+echo "  cd ${TMPDIR}/debian"
+echo "  dput *.changes"
+echo ""
+echo "Announce on:"
+echo "  twitter"
+echo "  google+"
+echo "  mailing list"
+echo "  #i3 topic"