diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 07e4dec0e3..ee0d6860d7 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ ARG ENGINE_BRANCH="19.03.x"
 # Distribution
 ARG DISTRIBUTION_BRANCH="release/2.7"
 
+# Set to "false" to build the documentation without archives
+ARG ENABLE_ARCHIVES=true
 
 ###
 # Set up base stages for building and deploying
@@ -52,17 +54,23 @@ COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:nginx-onbuild /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf /
 CMD echo -e "Docker docs are viewable at:\nhttp://0.0.0.0:4000"; exec nginx -g 'daemon off;'
 
 
-# Build the archived docs
-# these docs barely change, so can be cached
-FROM deploybase AS archives
-# Get all the archive static HTML and put it into place. To add a new archive,
-# add it here, and ALSO edit _data/docsarchives/archives.yaml to add it to the drop-down
-COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.03 ${TARGET} ${TARGET}
-COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.06 ${TARGET} ${TARGET}
-COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.09 ${TARGET} ${TARGET}
-COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.12 ${TARGET} ${TARGET}
-COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v18.03 ${TARGET} ${TARGET}
-COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v18.09 ${TARGET} ${TARGET}
+# Empty stage if archives are disabled (ENABLE_ARCHIVES=false)
+FROM scratch AS archives-false
+
+# Stage with static HTML for all archives (ENABLE_ARCHIVES=true)
+FROM scratch AS archives-true
+ENV TARGET=/usr/share/nginx/html
+# To add a new archive, add it here and ALSO edit _data/docsarchive/archives.yaml
+# to add it to the drop-down
+COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.03 ${TARGET} /
+COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.06 ${TARGET} /
+COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.09 ${TARGET} /
+COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v17.12 ${TARGET} /
+COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v18.03 ${TARGET} /
+COPY --from=docs/docker.github.io:v18.09 ${TARGET} /
+
+# Stage either with, or without archives, depending on ENABLE_ARCHIVES
+FROM archives-${ENABLE_ARCHIVES} AS archives
 
 # Fetch upstream resources (reference documentation)
 # Only add the files that are needed to build these reference docs, so that
@@ -74,20 +82,37 @@ COPY ./_data/toc.yaml ./_data/
 RUN bash ./_scripts/fetch-upstream-resources.sh .
 
 
-# Build the current docs from the checked out branch
+# Build the static HTML for the current docs.
+# After building with jekyll, fix up some links, but don't touch the archives
 FROM builderbase AS current
 COPY . .
 COPY --from=upstream-resources /usr/src/app/md_source/. ./
-
-# Build the static HTML, now that everything is in place
 RUN jekyll build -d ${TARGET}
-
-# Fix up some links, don't touch the archives
 RUN find ${TARGET} -type f -name '*.html' | grep -vE "v[0-9]+\." | while read i; do sed -i 's#href="https://docs.docker.com/#href="/#g' "$i"; done
 
 
-# Docs with archives (for deploy)
-FROM archives AS deploy
+# This stage only contains the generated files. It can be used to host the
+# documentation on a non-containerised service (e.g. to deploy to an s3 bucket).
+# When using BuildKit, use the '--output' option to build the files and to copy
+# them to your local filesystem.
+#
+# To build current docs, including archives:
+# DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build --target=deploy-source --output=./_site .
+#
+# To build without archives:
+# DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build --target=deploy-source --build-arg ENABLE_ARCHIVES=false --output=./_site .
+FROM archives AS deploy-source
+COPY --from=current /usr/share/nginx/html /
 
-# Add the current version of the docs
-COPY --from=current ${TARGET} ${TARGET}
+# Final stage, which includes nginx, and, depending on ENABLE_ARCHIVES, either
+# current docs and archived versions (ENABLE_ARCHIVES=true), or only the current
+# docs (ENABLE_ARCHIVES=false).
+#
+# To build current docs, including archives:
+# DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build -t docs .
+#
+# To build without archives:
+# DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build -t docs --build-arg ENABLE_ARCHIVES=false .
+FROM deploybase AS deploy
+WORKDIR $TARGET
+COPY --from=deploy-source / .