diff --git a/make/release.mk b/make/release.mk
index 59a931d7..bf94495a 100644
--- a/make/release.mk
+++ b/make/release.mk
@@ -1,102 +1,82 @@
 # to build official release tarballs, handle tagging and publish.
 
-gpgsignkey = 0x6CE95CA7  # signing key
-
 project = fence-agents
 
 deliverables = $(project)-$(version).sha256 \
                $(project)-$(version).tar.bz2 \
                $(project)-$(version).tar.gz \
                $(project)-$(version).tar.xz
 
 
 .PHONY: all
-all: tag tarballs sign  # first/last skipped per release/gpgsignkey respectively
+all: tag tarballs
 
 
 .PHONY: checks
 checks:
 ifeq (,$(version))
 	@echo ERROR: need to define version=
 	@exit 1
 endif
 	@if [ ! -d .git ]; then \
 		echo This script needs to be executed from top level cluster git tree; \
 		exit 1; \
 	fi
 	@if [ -n "$$(git status --untracked-files=no --porcelain 2>/dev/null)" ]; then \
 		echo Stash or rollback the uncommitted changes in git first; \
 		exit 1; \
 	fi
 
 
 .PHONY: setup
 setup: checks
 	./autogen.sh
 	./configure
-	make maintainer-clean
+	$(MAKE) maintainer-clean
 
 
 .PHONY: tag
 tag: setup ./tag-$(version)
 
 tag-$(version):
 ifeq (,$(release))
 	@echo Building test release $(version), no tagging
 	echo '$(version)' > .tarball-version
 else
 	# following will be captured by git-version-gen automatically
 	git tag -a -m "v$(version) release" v$(version) HEAD
 	@touch $@
 endif
 
 
 .PHONY: tarballs
 tarballs: tag
 	./autogen.sh
 	./configure
-	make distcheck
+	$(MAKE) distcheck
 
 
 .PHONY: sha256
 sha256: $(project)-$(version).sha256
 
-# NOTE: dependency backtrack may fail trying to sign missing tarballs otherwise
-#       (actually, only when signing tarballs directly, but doesn't hurt anyway)
 $(deliverables): tarballs
 
 $(project)-$(version).sha256:
 	# checksum anything from deliverables except for in-prep checksums file
 	sha256sum $(deliverables:$@=) | sort -k2 > $@
 
 
-.PHONY: sign
-ifeq (,$(gpgsignkey))
-sign: $(deliverables)
-	@echo No GPG signing key defined
-else
-sign: $(project)-$(version).sha256.asc  # "$(deliverables:=.asc)" to sign all
-endif
-
-# NOTE: cannot sign multiple files at once
-$(project)-$(version).%.asc: $(project)-$(version).%
-	gpg --default-key "$(strip $(gpgsignkey))" \
-		--detach-sign \
-		--armor \
-		$<
-
-
 .PHONY: publish
 publish:
 ifeq (,$(release))
 	@echo Building test release $(version), no publishing!
 else
 	git push --follow-tags origin
 	@echo Hey you!  Yeah you, looking somewhere else!
 	@echo Remember to notify cluster-devel/RH and users/ClusterLabs MLs.
 endif
 
 
 .PHONY: clean
 clean:
 	rm -rf $(project)* tag-* .tarball-version