diff --git a/bin/build_utils b/bin/build_utils
index 11e2b16a..aee8b22e 100644
--- a/bin/build_utils
+++ b/bin/build_utils
@@ -35,10 +35,14 @@ function tag_and_push() {
   shift
   local target="$1"
   shift
+  local promote="${1:-false}"
 
   docker tag "${source}" "${target}"
-  # Save the docker image for artifact signing
-  docker save -o "docker-image-${source}".tar "${source}"
+  # Save the docker image for artifact signing unless this is a promote
+  if [ "$promote" = false ]; then
+    echo "saving docker image: docker-image-${source}.tar in $(pwd)"
+    docker save -o "docker-image-${source}.tar" "${source}"
+  fi
   docker push "${target}"
 }
 
diff --git a/bin/publish b/bin/publish
index ce7b2ad1..102dd19a 100755
--- a/bin/publish
+++ b/bin/publish
@@ -118,8 +118,8 @@ if [[ ${PROMOTE} = true ]]; then
   # Publish images to docker hub
   for tag in "${TAGS[@]}" $(gen_versions "$REMOTE_TAG"); do
     echo "Tagging and pushing $REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:$tag"
-    tag_and_push "${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/$IMAGE_NAME:$SOURCE_TAG" "$REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:$tag"
-    tag_and_push "${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${REDHAT_LOCAL_IMAGE}:${SOURCE_TAG}" "$REGISTRY/${REDHAT_LOCAL_IMAGE}:$tag"
+    tag_and_push "${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/$IMAGE_NAME:$SOURCE_TAG" "$REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:$tag" "${PROMOTE}"
+    tag_and_push "${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${REDHAT_LOCAL_IMAGE}:${SOURCE_TAG}" "$REGISTRY/${REDHAT_LOCAL_IMAGE}:$tag" "${PROMOTE}"
   done