diff --git a/other/bootstrap_daemon/docker/tox-bootstrapd.sha256 b/other/bootstrap_daemon/docker/tox-bootstrapd.sha256
index 33ace212cb..1681d61ac5 100644
--- a/other/bootstrap_daemon/docker/tox-bootstrapd.sha256
+++ b/other/bootstrap_daemon/docker/tox-bootstrapd.sha256
@@ -1 +1 @@
-9ec2993a28988bd147bf8f4f21a824c2fc5dbf7255e391b3ce517d337ebce5c1  /usr/local/bin/tox-bootstrapd
+1b91d7fbd6da34b92d1ad85b289a00909e211203ffd8541ae5c0887dcc35f920  /usr/local/bin/tox-bootstrapd
diff --git a/other/version-sync b/other/version-sync
index 9a98b055f1..015a441578 100755
--- a/other/version-sync
+++ b/other/version-sync
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 set -eu
 
@@ -13,25 +13,25 @@ update() {
   file="$SOURCE_DIR/$1"
   expr="$2"
 
-  sed -e "$expr" "$file" > "$file.updated-version"
+  sed -e "$expr" "$file" >"$file.updated-version"
   if diff "$file" "$file.updated-version"; then
     rm "$file.updated-version"
   else
     # use cat > and rm instead of move to keep file permissions
-    cat "$file.updated-version" > "$file"
+    cat "$file.updated-version" >"$file"
     rm "$file.updated-version"
   fi
 }
 
-update 'configure.ac' 's/AC_INIT(\[tox\], \[.*\])/AC_INIT([tox], ['$VER'])/'
+update 'configure.ac' 's/AC_INIT(\[tox\], \[.*\])/AC_INIT([tox], ['"$VER"'])/'
 
-update 'toxcore/tox.api.h' 's/\(const VERSION_MAJOR *= \).*;/\1'$MAJOR';/'
-update 'toxcore/tox.api.h' 's/\(const VERSION_MINOR *= \).*;/\1'$MINOR';/'
-update 'toxcore/tox.api.h' 's/\(const VERSION_PATCH *= \).*;/\1'$PATCH';/'
+update 'toxcore/tox.api.h' 's/\(const VERSION_MAJOR *= \).*;/\1'"$MAJOR"';/'
+update 'toxcore/tox.api.h' 's/\(const VERSION_MINOR *= \).*;/\1'"$MINOR"';/'
+update 'toxcore/tox.api.h' 's/\(const VERSION_PATCH *= \).*;/\1'"$PATCH"';/'
 
-update 'CMakeLists.txt' 's/\(PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR "\).*"/\1'$MAJOR'"/'
-update 'CMakeLists.txt' 's/\(PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR "\).*"/\1'$MINOR'"/'
-update 'CMakeLists.txt' 's/\(PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH "\).*"/\1'$PATCH'"/'
+update 'CMakeLists.txt' 's/\(PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR "\).*"/\1'"$MAJOR"'"/'
+update 'CMakeLists.txt' 's/\(PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR "\).*"/\1'"$MINOR"'"/'
+update 'CMakeLists.txt' 's/\(PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH "\).*"/\1'"$PATCH"'"/'
 
 #
 # calculating the SO version
@@ -64,14 +64,14 @@ update 'CMakeLists.txt' 's/\(PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH "\).*"/\1'$PATCH'"/'
 # this must be constant starting from the 1.0 release
 LAST_SOMAJOR=2
 
-if [ $MAJOR -eq 0 ]; then
+if [ "$MAJOR" -eq 0 ]; then
   SOMAJOR=$MINOR
   SOMINOR=$PATCH
 
   # update lastmajor above
-  update 'other/version-sync' 's/^\(LAST_SOMAJOR=\).*/\1'$SOMAJOR'/'
+  update 'other/version-sync' 's/^\(LAST_SOMAJOR=\).*/\1'"$SOMAJOR"'/'
 else
-  SOMAJOR=$(expr $MAJOR + $LAST_SOMAJOR)
+  SOMAJOR=$(("$MAJOR" + "$LAST_SOMAJOR"))
   SOMINOR=$MINOR
 fi
 
@@ -115,16 +115,16 @@ fi
 # <=> major.minor.patch
 #
 
-if [ $MAJOR -eq 0 ]; then
-  LIBTOOL_CURRENT=$(expr $SOMAJOR + $SOMINOR)
+if [ "$MAJOR" -eq 0 ]; then
+  LIBTOOL_CURRENT=$(("$SOMAJOR" + "$SOMINOR"))
   LIBTOOL_AGE=$SOMINOR
   LIBTOOL_REVISION=0
 else
-  LIBTOOL_CURRENT=$(expr $SOMAJOR + $SOMINOR)
+  LIBTOOL_CURRENT=$(("$SOMAJOR" + "$SOMINOR"))
   LIBTOOL_AGE=$SOMINOR
   LIBTOOL_REVISION=$PATCH
 fi
 
-update 'so.version' 's/^\(CURRENT=\).*/\1'$LIBTOOL_CURRENT'/'
-update 'so.version' 's/^\(AGE=\).*/\1'$LIBTOOL_AGE'/'
-update 'so.version' 's/^\(REVISION=\).*/\1'$LIBTOOL_REVISION'/'
+update 'so.version' 's/^\(CURRENT=\).*/\1'"$LIBTOOL_CURRENT"'/'
+update 'so.version' 's/^\(AGE=\).*/\1'"$LIBTOOL_AGE"'/'
+update 'so.version' 's/^\(REVISION=\).*/\1'"$LIBTOOL_REVISION"'/'
diff --git a/tools/update-versions.sh b/tools/update-versions.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..814b6f4eda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/update-versions.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -eux -o pipefail
+
+VERSION=$1
+
+GIT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+cd "$GIT_ROOT"
+
+# Strip suffixes (e.g. "-rc.1") from the version for the toxcore version sync.
+VERSION="${VERSION%-*}"
+
+IFS="." read -ra version_parts <<<"$VERSION"
+
+other/version-sync "$GIT_ROOT" "${version_parts[0]}" "${version_parts[1]}" "${version_parts[2]}"