diff --git a/scripts/packages/BUILD b/scripts/packages/BUILD
index bcc653b..8a8a4c7 100644
--- a/scripts/packages/BUILD
+++ b/scripts/packages/BUILD
@@ -41,6 +41,14 @@
     }),
 )
 
+filegroup(
+    name = "wrapper",
+    srcs = ["bazel.sh"],
+    visibility = [
+        "//src/test/shell/bazel:__subpackages__",
+    ],
+)
+
 sh_binary(
     name = "package-info-generator",
     srcs = ["package_info_generator.sh"],
diff --git a/scripts/packages/bazel.sh b/scripts/packages/bazel.sh
index b75b2e6..635c059 100755
--- a/scripts/packages/bazel.sh
+++ b/scripts/packages/bazel.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-# Copyright 2015 The Bazel Authors. All rights reserved.
+# Copyright 2019 The Bazel Authors. All rights reserved.
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -16,10 +16,37 @@
 
 set -eu
 
-# This is a script which is installed instead of the real Bazel binary.
-# It looks for a tools/bazel executable next to the containing WORKSPACE
-# file and runs that. If that's not found, it runs the real Bazel binary which
-# is installed next to this script as bazel-real.
+# This is a script which can be installed as your "bazel" binary instead of the
+# real Bazel binary. When called, it tries to determine and run the correct
+# Bazel version for a given project and forwards all arguments to it.
+#
+# You can specify which Bazel version to use using these methods:
+# 1. Set $USE_BAZEL_VERSION to a version number
+#    (e.g. export USE_BAZEL_VERSION=1.0.0).
+# 2. Add a .bazelversion file that contains a version number next to your
+#    WORKSPACE file.
+# 3. Otherwise, the latest Bazel version will be used.
+#
+# This wrapper only recognizes Bazel versions installed next to itself, thus
+# if you install this wrapper as /usr/bin/bazel, you'll have to install binaries
+# for individual Bazel binaries as e.g. /usr/bin/bazel-1.0.0.
+#
+# In addition, if an executable called "tools/bazel" is found in the current
+# workspace, this script will not directly execute Bazel, but instead store
+# the path to the real Bazel executable in the environment variable BAZEL_REAL
+# and then execute the "tools/bazel" wrapper script.
+#
+# In contrast to Bazelisk, this script does not download anything from the
+# internet and instead relies on the local system to provide Bazel binaries.
+
+function color() {
+      # Usage: color "31;5" "string"
+      # Some valid values for color:
+      # - 5 blink, 1 strong, 4 underlined
+      # - fg: 31 red,  32 green, 33 yellow, 34 blue, 35 purple, 36 cyan, 37 white
+      # - bg: 40 black, 41 red, 44 blue, 45 purple
+      printf '\033[%sm%s\033[0m\n' "$@"
+}
 
 # `readlink -f` that works on OSX too.
 function get_realpath() {
@@ -61,29 +88,99 @@
     fi
 }
 
-BAZEL_REAL="$(dirname "$(get_realpath "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")/bazel-real"
-export BAZEL_REAL
-
-WORKSPACE_DIR="${PWD}"
-while [[ "${WORKSPACE_DIR}" != / ]]; do
-    if [[ -e "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/WORKSPACE" ]]; then
-      break;
+function get_workspace_root() {
+  workspace_dir="${PWD}"
+  while [[ "${workspace_dir}" != / ]]; do
+    if [[ -e "${workspace_dir}/WORKSPACE" ]]; then
+      readonly workspace_dir
+      return
     fi
-    WORKSPACE_DIR="$(dirname "${WORKSPACE_DIR}")"
-done
-readonly WORKSPACE_DIR
+    workspace_dir="$(dirname "${workspace_dir}")"
+  done
+  readonly workspace_dir=""
+}
 
-if [[ -e "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/WORKSPACE" ]]; then
-  readonly WRAPPER="${WORKSPACE_DIR}/tools/bazel"
+get_workspace_root
 
-  if [[ -x "${WRAPPER}" && ! -d "${WRAPPER}" ]]; then
-    exec -a "$0" "${WRAPPER}" "$@"
+readonly wrapper_dir="$(dirname "$(get_realpath "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")"
+readonly os_arch_suffix="$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')-$(uname -m)"
+
+function get_bazel_version() {
+  if [[ -n ${USE_BAZEL_VERSION:-} ]]; then
+    readonly reason="specified in \$USE_BAZEL_VERSION"
+    readonly bazel_version="${USE_BAZEL_VERSION}"
+  elif [[ -e "${workspace_dir}/.bazelversion" ]]; then
+    readonly reason="specified in ${workspace_dir}/.bazelversion"
+    read -r bazel_version < "${workspace_dir}/.bazelversion"
+    readonly bazel_version="${bazel_version}"
+  elif [[ -x "${wrapper_dir}/bazel-real" ]]; then
+    readonly reason="automatically selected bazel-real"
+    readonly bazel_version="real"
+  else
+    # Find the latest Bazel version installed on the system.
+    readonly reason="automatically selected latest available version"
+    bazel_version="$(basename "$(find -H "${wrapper_dir}" -maxdepth 1 -name 'bazel-[0-9]*-${os_arch_suffix}' -type f | sort -V | tail -n 1)")"
+    if [[ -z $bazel_version ]]; then
+      bazel_version="$(basename "$(find -H "${wrapper_dir}" -maxdepth 1 -name 'bazel-[0-9]*' -type f | sort -V | tail -n 1)")"
+    fi
+    # Remove the "bazel-" prefix from the file name.
+    bazel_version="${bazel_version#"bazel-"}"
+    readonly bazel_version
   fi
+}
+
+get_bazel_version
+
+if [[ -z $bazel_version ]]; then
+  color "31" "ERROR: No installed Bazel version found, cannot continue."
+  (echo ""
+  echo "Bazel binaries have to be installed in ${wrapper_dir}, but none were found.") 2>&1
+  exit 1
 fi
 
-if [[ ! -x "${BAZEL_REAL}" ]]; then
-    echo "Failed to find underlying Bazel executable at ${BAZEL_REAL}" >&2
-    exit 1
+BAZEL_REAL="${wrapper_dir}/bazel-${bazel_version}-${os_arch_suffix}"
+if [[ ! -x ${BAZEL_REAL} ]]; then
+  BAZEL_REAL="${wrapper_dir}/bazel-${bazel_version}"
+fi
+
+if [[ ! -x $BAZEL_REAL ]]; then
+  color "31" "ERROR: The project you're trying to build requires Bazel ${bazel_version} (${reason}), but it wasn't found in ${wrapper_dir}."
+
+  long_binary_name="bazel-${bazel_version}-${os_arch_suffix}"
+
+  if [[ -x $(command -v apt-get) && $wrapper_dir == "/usr/bin" ]]; then
+    (echo ""
+    echo "You can install the required Bazel version via apt:"
+    echo "  sudo apt update && sudo apt install bazel-${bazel_version}"
+    echo ""
+    echo "If this doesn't work, check Bazel's installation instructions for help:"
+    echo "  https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/install-ubuntu.html") 2>&1
+  else
+    (echo ""
+    echo "Bazel binaries for all official releaeses can be downloaded from here:"
+    echo "  https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/releases") 2>&1
+
+    if [[ -x $(command -v curl) && -w $wrapper_dir ]]; then
+      (echo ""
+      echo "You can download the required version directly using this command:"
+      echo "  (cd \"${wrapper_dir}\" && curl -LO https://releases.bazel.build/${bazel_version}/release/${long_binary_name} && chmod +x ${long_binary_name})") 2>&1
+    elif [[ -x $(command -v wget) && -w $wrapper_dir ]]; then
+      (echo ""
+      echo "You can download the required version directly using this command:"
+      echo "  (cd \"${wrapper_dir}\" && wget https://releases.bazel.build/${bazel_version}/release/${long_binary_name} && chmod +x ${long_binary_name})") 2>&1
+    else
+      (echo ""
+      echo "Please put the downloaded Bazel binary into this location:"
+      echo "  ${wrapper_dir}/${long_binary_name}") 2>&1
+    fi
+  fi
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+readonly wrapper="${workspace_dir}/tools/bazel"
+if [[ -x "$wrapper" ]]; then
+  export BAZEL_REAL
+  exec -a "$0" "${wrapper}" "$@"
 fi
 
 exec -a "$0" "${BAZEL_REAL}" "$@"