diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bf4c8dfec0bcee763115d7ec220c1f93347a39fe..3908be1d11df32504532c6061a2196d45cc0bf18 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -49,12 +49,16 @@ test-all: lint
 	go test ./...
 
 package:
-	./scripts/build.py --package --version="$(VERSION)" --platform=linux --arch=all --upload
-
+	./scripts/build.py --package --platform=all --arch=all
 clean:
 	-rm -f telegraf
 	-rm -f telegraf.exe
 
+docker-image:
+	./scripts/build.py --package --platform=linux --arch=amd64
+	cp build/telegraf*$(COMMIT)*.deb .
+	docker build -f scripts/dev.docker --build-arg "package=telegraf*$(COMMIT)*.deb" -t "telegraf-dev:$(COMMIT)" .
+
 # Run all docker containers necessary for integration tests
 docker-run:
 	docker run --name aerospike -p "3000:3000" -d aerospike/aerospike-server:3.9.0
@@ -114,4 +118,4 @@ docker-kill:
 		openldap postgres rabbitmq redis riemann zookeeper
 
 .PHONY: deps telegraf telegraf.exe install test test-windows lint test-all \
-	package clean docker-run docker-run-circle docker-kill
+	package clean docker-run docker-run-circle docker-kill docker-image
diff --git a/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go b/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go
index 6301ea8ff287d82d10c3c9a30a95044f8ec57f60..42fd6cf2f253694edd27fc5c1dcbf618ed999a0e 100644
--- a/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go
+++ b/cmd/telegraf/telegraf.go
@@ -268,7 +268,7 @@ func (p *program) Stop(s service.Service) error {
 
 func displayVersion() string {
 	if version == "" {
-		return fmt.Sprintf("v%s~pre%s", nextVersion, commit)
+		return fmt.Sprintf("v%s~%s", nextVersion, commit)
 	}
 	return "v" + version
 }
diff --git a/scripts/build.py b/scripts/build.py
index 9b70e961e29d7e3ea9cc699fca5d958302cbf7ec..cc0709e0aec4eb0cba0b2a2faa97ec677ce582f2 100755
--- a/scripts/build.py
+++ b/scripts/build.py
@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ supported_packages = {
     "freebsd": [ "tar" ]
 }
 
+next_version = '1.5.0'
+
 ################
 #### Telegraf Functions
 ################
@@ -158,7 +160,8 @@ def go_get(branch, update=False, no_uncommitted=False):
         get_command = "go get github.com/sparrc/gdm"
         run(get_command)
     logging.info("Retrieving dependencies with `gdm`...")
-    run("{}/bin/gdm restore -v".format(os.environ.get("GOPATH")))
+    run("{}/bin/gdm restore -v".format(os.environ.get("GOPATH",
+        os.path.expanduser("~/go"))))
     return True
 
 def run_tests(race, parallel, timeout, no_vet):
@@ -223,13 +226,16 @@ def increment_minor_version(version):
 def get_current_version_tag():
     """Retrieve the raw git version tag.
     """
-    version = run("git describe --always --tags --abbrev=0")
+    version = run("git describe --exact-match --tags 2>/dev/null",
+            allow_failure=True, shell=True)
     return version
 
 def get_current_version():
     """Parse version information from git tag output.
     """
     version_tag = get_current_version_tag()
+    if not version_tag:
+        return None
     # Remove leading 'v'
     if version_tag[0] == 'v':
         version_tag = version_tag[1:]
@@ -474,12 +480,17 @@ def build(version=None,
         if len(tags) > 0:
             build_command += "-tags {} ".format(','.join(tags))
 
-        build_command += "-ldflags=\"-w -s -X main.version={} -X main.branch={} -X main.commit={}\" ".format(
-                version,
-                get_current_branch(),
-                get_current_commit())
+        ldflags = [
+                '-w', '-s',
+                '-X', 'main.branch={}'.format(get_current_branch()),
+                '-X', 'main.commit={}'.format(get_current_commit(short=True))]
+        if version:
+            ldflags.append('-X')
+            ldflags.append('main.version={}'.format(version))
+        build_command += ' -ldflags="{}" '.format(' '.join(ldflags))
+
         if static:
-            build_command += "-a -installsuffix cgo "
+            build_command += " -a -installsuffix cgo "
         build_command += path
         start_time = datetime.utcnow()
         run(build_command, shell=True)
@@ -575,10 +586,8 @@ def package(build_output, pkg_name, version, nightly=False, iteration=1, static=
                         package_arch = 'armv6hl'
                     else:
                         package_arch = arch
-                    if not release and not nightly:
-                        # For non-release builds, just use the commit hash as the version
-                        package_version = "{}~{}".format(version,
-                                                         get_current_commit(short=True))
+                    if not version:
+                        package_version = "{}~{}".format(next_version, get_current_commit(short=True))
                         package_iteration = "0"
                     package_build_root = build_root
                     current_location = build_output[platform][arch]
diff --git a/scripts/dev.docker b/scripts/dev.docker
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..902c7f9aa84d7a840139b2f1e92d80a34aa37d68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/dev.docker
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+FROM debian:stretch
+ARG package
+ADD ${package} ${package}
+RUN dpkg -i ${package}
+
+EXPOSE 8125/udp 8092/udp 8094
+
+CMD ["telegraf"]