diff --git a/tools/gulp/gulpfile.ts b/tools/gulp/gulpfile.ts
index 48963fabe045..636fa57715bb 100644
--- a/tools/gulp/gulpfile.ts
+++ b/tools/gulp/gulpfile.ts
@@ -7,4 +7,4 @@ import './tasks/e2e';
 import './tasks/lint';
 import './tasks/release';
 import './tasks/serve';
-import './tasks/spec';
+import './tasks/unit-test';
diff --git a/tools/gulp/task_helpers.ts b/tools/gulp/task_helpers.ts
index 15e074392e4d..03a23ee9c660 100644
--- a/tools/gulp/task_helpers.ts
+++ b/tools/gulp/task_helpers.ts
@@ -68,12 +68,15 @@ export function sassBuildTask(dest: string, root: string, includePaths: string[]
 }
 
 
-/** Create a Gulp task that executes a process. */
+/** Options that can be passed to execTask or execNodeTask. */
 export interface ExecTaskOptions {
+  // Whether to output to STDERR and STDOUT.
   silent?: boolean;
+  // If an error happens, this will replace the standard error.
   errMessage?: string;
 }
 
+/** Create a task that executes a binary as if from the command line. */
 export function execTask(binPath: string, args: string[], options: ExecTaskOptions = {}) {
   return (done: (err?: string) => void) => {
     const childProcess = child_process.spawn(binPath, args);
@@ -95,14 +98,20 @@ export function execTask(binPath: string, args: string[], options: ExecTaskOptio
         } else {
           done(options.errMessage);
         }
-        return;
+      } else {
+        done();
       }
-      done();
     });
   }
 }
 
-export function execNodeTask(packageName: string, executable: string[] | string, args?: string[]) {
+/**
+ * Create a task that executes an NPM Bin, by resolving the binary path then executing it. These are
+ * binaries that are normally in the `./node_modules/.bin` directory, but their name might differ
+ * from the package. Examples are typescript, ngc and gulp itself.
+ */
+export function execNodeTask(packageName: string, executable: string | string[], args?: string[],
+                             options: ExecTaskOptions = {}) {
   if (!args) {
     args = <string[]>executable;
     executable = undefined;
@@ -111,12 +120,11 @@ export function execNodeTask(packageName: string, executable: string[] | string,
   return (done: (err: any) => void) => {
     resolveBin(packageName, { executable: executable }, (err: any, binPath: string) => {
       if (err) {
-        console.error(err);
-        return done(err);
+        done(err);
+      } else {
+        // Forward to execTask.
+        execTask(binPath, args, options)(done);
       }
-
-      // Forward to execTask.
-      execTask(binPath, args)(done);
     });
   }
 }
diff --git a/tools/gulp/tasks/ci.ts b/tools/gulp/tasks/ci.ts
index 47a0d1753e4d..9b6122dafc55 100644
--- a/tools/gulp/tasks/ci.ts
+++ b/tools/gulp/tasks/ci.ts
@@ -2,9 +2,13 @@ import {task} from 'gulp';
 
 
 task('ci:lint', ['ci:forbidden-identifiers', 'lint']);
-task('ci:test', ['test:single-run']);
-task('ci:e2e', ['e2e']);
+
 task('ci:extract-metadata', [':build:components:ngc']);
 task('ci:forbidden-identifiers', function() {
   require('../../../scripts/ci/forbidden-identifiers.js');
 });
+
+// Travis sometimes does not exit the process and times out. This is to prevent that.
+task('ci:test', ['test:single-run'], () => process.exit(0));
+// Travis sometimes does not exit the process and times out. This is to prevent that.
+task('ci:e2e', ['e2e'], () => process.exit(0));
diff --git a/tools/gulp/tasks/release.ts b/tools/gulp/tasks/release.ts
index 58a971e27604..f9a92d6727b2 100644
--- a/tools/gulp/tasks/release.ts
+++ b/tools/gulp/tasks/release.ts
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ task(':publish:whoami', execTask('npm', ['whoami'], {
 task(':publish:logout', execTask('npm', ['logout']));
 
 task(':publish', function() {
+  const label = process.argv.slice(2)[1];  // [0] would be ':publish'
+  const labelArg = label ? `--tag ${label}` : '';
   const currentDir = process.cwd();
 
   readdirSync(DIST_COMPONENTS_ROOT)
@@ -40,7 +42,7 @@ task(':publish', function() {
       }
 
       process.chdir(componentPath);
-      execSync('npm publish');
+      execSync(`npm publish --access public ${labelArg}`);
     });
   process.chdir(currentDir);
 });
diff --git a/tools/gulp/tasks/spec.ts b/tools/gulp/tasks/unit-test.ts
similarity index 100%
rename from tools/gulp/tasks/spec.ts
rename to tools/gulp/tasks/unit-test.ts