diff --git a/docs/gh-pages.py b/docs/gh-pages.py
index e569cde..8359215 100755
--- a/docs/gh-pages.py
+++ b/docs/gh-pages.py
@@ -110,7 +110,10 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     try:
         tag = sys.argv[1]
     except IndexError:
-        tag = sh2('git describe')
+        try:
+            tag = sh2('git describe')
+        except CalledProcessError:
+            tag = "dev"   # Fallback
     
     try:
         desc = sys.argv[2]
diff --git a/docs/source/development/doc_guide.txt b/docs/source/development/doc_guide.txt
index b2010da..dee8dcf 100644
--- a/docs/source/development/doc_guide.txt
+++ b/docs/source/development/doc_guide.txt
@@ -133,6 +133,28 @@ docutils (the machinery to process reStructuredText):
    In the past IPython used epydoc so currently many docstrings still use
    epydoc conventions.  We will update them as we go, but all new code should
    be documented using the NumPy standard.
+   
+Building and uploading
+======================
+The built docs are stored in a separate repository. Through some github magic,
+they're automatically exposed as a website. It works like this:
+
+* You will need to have sphinx and latex installed. In Ubuntu, install
+  ``texlive-latex-recommended texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended``.
+  Install the latest version of sphinx from PyPI (``pip install sphinx``).
+* Ensure that the development version of IPython is the first in your system
+  path. You can either use a virtualenv, or modify your PYTHONPATH.
+* Switch into the docs directory, and run ``make gh-pages``. This will build
+  your updated docs as html and pdf, then automatically check out the latest
+  version of the docs repository, copy the built docs into it, and commit your
+  changes.
+* Open the built docs in a web browser, and check that they're as expected.
+* (If rebuilding the docs for the development version, it may have duplicated
+  the link to the development version in the homepage. Remove this from
+  index.rst, then run ``python build_index.py`` to update index.html. Commit the
+  change.)
+* Upload the docs with ``git push``. This only works if you have write access to
+  the docs repository.
 
 .. [reStructuredText] reStructuredText.  http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
 .. [Sphinx] Sphinx. http://sphinx.pocoo.org/