diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d60bc7c00a96..b18a8bfbd7bc 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -164,7 +164,6 @@ DESTDIR :=
 DUPLFLAGS    := -t 100
 GOFLAGS      :=
 TAGS         :=
-ARCHIVE      := cockroach.src.tgz
 STARTFLAGS   := -s type=mem,size=1GiB --logtostderr
 BUILDTARGET  := ./pkg/cmd/cockroach
 SUFFIX       := $(GOEXE)
@@ -1254,36 +1253,6 @@ pre-push: ## Run generate, lint, and test.
 pre-push: generate lint test ui-lint ui-test
 	! git status --porcelain | read || (git status; git --no-pager diff -a 1>&2; exit 1)
 
-# archive builds a source tarball out of this repository. Files in the special
-# directory build/archive/contents are inserted directly into $(ARCHIVE_BASE).
-# All other files in the repository are inserted into the archive with prefix
-# $(ARCHIVE_BASE)/src/github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach to allow the extracted
-# archive to serve directly as a GOPATH root.
-.PHONY: archive
-archive: ## Build a source tarball from this repository.
-archive: $(ARCHIVE)
-
-$(ARCHIVE): $(ARCHIVE).tmp
-	gzip -c $< > $@
-
-# ARCHIVE_EXTRAS are hard-to-generate files and their prerequisites that are
-# pre-generated and distributed in source archives to minimize the number of
-# dependencies required for end-users to build from source.
-ARCHIVE_EXTRAS = \
-	$(BUILDINFO) \
-	$(SQLPARSER_TARGETS) \
-	$(OPTGEN_TARGETS) \
-	pkg/ui/assets.ccl.installed pkg/ui/assets.oss.installed
-
-# TODO(benesch): Make this recipe use `git ls-files --recurse-submodules`
-# instead of scripts/ls-files.sh once Git v2.11 is widely deployed.
-.INTERMEDIATE: $(ARCHIVE).tmp
-$(ARCHIVE).tmp: ARCHIVE_BASE = cockroach-$(if $(BUILDINFO_TAG),$(BUILDINFO_TAG),$(shell cat .buildinfo/tag))
-$(ARCHIVE).tmp: $(ARCHIVE_EXTRAS)
-	echo "$(if $(BUILDINFO_TAG),$(BUILDINFO_TAG),$(shell cat .buildinfo/tag))" > .buildinfo/tag
-	scripts/ls-files.sh | $(TAR) -cf $@ -T - $(TAR_XFORM_FLAG),^,$(ARCHIVE_BASE)/src/github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/, $^
-	(cd build/archive/contents && $(TAR) -rf ../../../$@ $(TAR_XFORM_FLAG),^,$(ARCHIVE_BASE)/, *)
-
 .buildinfo:
 	@mkdir -p $@
 
@@ -1751,7 +1720,7 @@ cleanshort:
 	-$(GO) clean $(GOFLAGS) -tags '$(TAGS)' -ldflags '$(LINKFLAGS)' -i github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach...
 	$(FIND_RELEVANT) -type f -name '*.test' -exec rm {} +
 	for f in cockroach*; do if [ -f "$$f" ]; then rm "$$f"; fi; done
-	rm -rf $(ARCHIVE) pkg/sql/parser/gen
+	rm -rf pkg/sql/parser/gen
 
 .PHONY: clean
 clean: ## Like cleanshort, but also includes C++ artifacts, Bazel artifacts, and the go build cache.
@@ -1916,7 +1885,7 @@ endif
 # https://github.com/Reviewable/Reviewable/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-tell-reviewable-that-a-file-is-generated-and-should-not-be-reviewed
 # Note how the 'prefix' variable is manually appended. This is required by Homebrew.
 .SECONDARY: build/variables.mk
-build/variables.mk: Makefile build/archive/contents/Makefile pkg/ui/Makefile build/defs.mk
+build/variables.mk: Makefile pkg/ui/Makefile build/defs.mk
 	@echo '# Code generated by Make. DO NOT EDIT.' > $@.tmp
 	@echo '# GENERATED FILE DO NOT EDIT' >> $@.tmp
 	@echo 'define VALID_VARS' >> $@.tmp
diff --git a/build/archive/README.md b/build/archive/README.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 44322f3f4460..000000000000
--- a/build/archive/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-# build/archive
-
-Files in the `contents` subdirectory are copied to the root of any source
-tarball created with `make archive`.
diff --git a/build/archive/contents/Makefile b/build/archive/contents/Makefile
deleted file mode 100644
index a15f80aab6de..000000000000
--- a/build/archive/contents/Makefile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-export GOPATH = $(CURDIR)
-export BUILDCHANNEL := source-archive
-
-.PHONY: all build buildoss check clean install test
-all build buildoss check clean install test:
-	$(MAKE) -C src/github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach $@
diff --git a/build/archive/contents/README b/build/archive/contents/README
deleted file mode 100644
index 1172476246ac..000000000000
--- a/build/archive/contents/README
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
-CockroachDB is a scalable, survivable, strongly-consistent SQL database.
-
-You have downloaded a source archive, which requires a Go toolchain to compile.
-For other installation options, including pre-compiled binaries, see
-https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/install-cockroachdb.html.
-
-To build CockroachDB from this source archive:
-
-     $ make build
-
-See src/github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/CONTRIBUTING.md for a complete list of
-build requirements.
-
-To install CockroachDB as /usr/local/bin/cockroach:
-
-     $ make install
-
-To interact with a one-node SQL cluster:
-
-     $ cockroach start --background --insecure
-     $ cockroach sql --insecure
-     $ pkill -TERM cockroach # to shut down the nodes
-
-Next steps:
-
-    * Read the docs: https://cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/
-    * Check out the GitHub repository: https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach
diff --git a/build/variables.mk b/build/variables.mk
index 540494fb8a41..cb35b3e76209 100644
--- a/build/variables.mk
+++ b/build/variables.mk
@@ -3,13 +3,9 @@
 define VALID_VARS
   ACCEPTANCETIMEOUT
   ANTITHESIS
-  ARCHIVE
-  ARCHIVE_BASE
-  ARCHIVE_EXTRAS
   BASE_CGO_FLAGS_FILES
   BENCHES
   BENCHTIMEOUT
-  BUILDCHANNEL
   BUILDINFO
   BUILDINFO_TAG
   BUILDTARGET
diff --git a/pkg/build/info.go b/pkg/build/info.go
index c41e3d8b28e0..67040a3ce2ae 100644
--- a/pkg/build/info.go
+++ b/pkg/build/info.go
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ func IsRelease() bool {
 // SeemsOfficial reports whether this binary is likely to have come from an
 // official release channel.
 func SeemsOfficial() bool {
-	return channel == "official-binary" || channel == "source-archive"
+	return channel == "official-binary"
 }
 
 func computeBinaryVersion(versionTxt, revision string) string {