diff --git a/scripts/packages/BUILD b/scripts/packages/BUILD
index ef3fe22f907fc3..5bce69d16f9207 100644
--- a/scripts/packages/BUILD
+++ b/scripts/packages/BUILD
@@ -92,6 +92,14 @@ pkg_tar(
     strip_prefix = ".",
 )
 
+pkg_tar(
+    name = "bazel-rc",
+    files = ["debian/bazel.bazelrc"],
+    mode = "0644",
+    package_dir = "/etc",
+    strip_prefix = "debian",
+)
+
 genrule(
     name = "rename-bazel-completion",
     srcs = ["//scripts:bash_completion"],
@@ -112,6 +120,7 @@ pkg_tar(
     deps = [
         ":bazel-bin",
         ":bazel-completion",
+        ":bazel-rc",
     ],
 )
 
diff --git a/scripts/packages/debian/bazel.bazelrc b/scripts/packages/debian/bazel.bazelrc
index e69de29bb2d1d6..36742468a2c582 100644
--- a/scripts/packages/debian/bazel.bazelrc
+++ b/scripts/packages/debian/bazel.bazelrc
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+common --action_env=PATH
+common --action_env=LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+common --action_env=TMPDIR
diff --git a/scripts/packages/template_bin.sh b/scripts/packages/template_bin.sh
index ceb58c83de8081..69837f4ad71a50 100755
--- a/scripts/packages/template_bin.sh
+++ b/scripts/packages/template_bin.sh
@@ -41,14 +41,16 @@ usage() {
   echo "  --prefix=/some/path set the prefix path (default=/usr/local)." >&2
   echo "  --bin= set the binary folder path (default=%prefix%/bin)." >&2
   echo "  --base= set the base install path (default=%prefix%/lib/bazel)." >&2
+  echo "  --bazelrc= set the path to bazelrc (default=/etc/bazel.bazelrc)." >&2
   echo "  --user configure for user install, expands to:" >&2
-  echo '      --bin=$HOME/bin --base=$HOME/.bazel' >&2
+  echo '      --bin=$HOME/bin --base=$HOME/.bazel --bazelrc=$HOME/.bazelrc' >&2
   exit 1
 }
 
 prefix="/usr/local"
 bin="%prefix%/bin"
 base="%prefix%/lib/bazel"
+bazelrc="/etc/bazel.bazelrc"
 
 for opt in "${@}"; do
   case $opt in
@@ -56,8 +58,7 @@ for opt in "${@}"; do
       prefix="$(echo "$opt" | cut -d '=' -f 2-)"
       ;;
     --bazelrc=*)
-      # TODO(kchodorow): remove once everything we're testing on CI contains
-      # this comment.
+      bazelrc="$(echo "$opt" | cut -d '=' -f 2-)"
       ;;
     --bin=*)
       bin="$(echo "$opt" | cut -d '=' -f 2-)"
@@ -68,6 +69,7 @@ for opt in "${@}"; do
     --user)
       bin="$HOME/bin"
       base="$HOME/.bazel"
+      bazelrc="$HOME/.bazelrc"
       ;;
     *)
       usage
@@ -77,6 +79,7 @@ done
 
 bin="${bin//%prefix%/${prefix}}"
 base="${base//%prefix%/${prefix}}"
+bazelrc="${bazelrc//%prefix%/${prefix}}"
 
 test_write() {
   local file="$1"
@@ -130,6 +133,7 @@ fi
 # Test for write access
 test_write "${bin}"
 test_write "${base}"
+test_write "${bazelrc}"
 
 # Do the actual installation
 echo -n "Uncompressing."
@@ -155,7 +159,17 @@ echo -n .
 ln -s "${base}/bin/bazel" "${bin}/bazel"
 echo -n .
 
-if [ "${UID}" -ne 0 ]; then
+if [ -f "${bazelrc}" ]; then
+  echo
+  echo "${bazelrc} already exists, moving it to ${bazelrc}.bak."
+  mv "${bazelrc}" "${bazelrc}.bak"
+fi
+
+# Not necessary, but this way it matches the Debian package.
+touch "${bazelrc}"
+if [ "${UID}" -eq 0 ]; then
+  chmod 0644 "${bazelrc}"
+else
   # Uncompress the bazel base install for faster startup time
   "${bin}/bazel" help >/dev/null
 fi