diff --git a/ci/build.py b/ci/build.py
index 06a747515182..b7236dcc9beb 100755
--- a/ci/build.py
+++ b/ci/build.py
@@ -273,15 +273,10 @@ def container_run(platform: str,
         # mount mxnet/build for storing build
         '-v', "{}:/work/build".format(local_build_folder),
         '-v', "{}:/work/ccache".format(local_ccache_dir),
-        '-u', '{}:{}'.format(os.getuid(), os.getgid()),
-        '-e', 'CCACHE_MAXSIZE={}'.format(environment['CCACHE_MAXSIZE']),
-        # temp dir should be local and not shared
-        '-e', 'CCACHE_TEMPDIR={}'.format(environment['CCACHE_TEMPDIR']),
-        # this path is inside the container as /work/ccache is mounted
-        '-e', "CCACHE_DIR={}".format(environment['CCACHE_DIR']),
-        # a container-scoped log, useful for ccache verification.
-        '-e', "CCACHE_LOGFILE={}".format(environment['CCACHE_LOGFILE']),
+        '-u', '{}:{}'.format(os.getuid(), os.getgid())
     ]
+    for e in environment.keys():
+        docker_arg_list += ['-e', '{}={}'.format(e, environment[e])]
     docker_arg_list += [tag]
     docker_arg_list.extend(command)
 
diff --git a/tools/pip/setup.py b/tools/pip/setup.py
index bd18f1e6ddab..a8ab7b0322c9 100644
--- a/tools/pip/setup.py
+++ b/tools/pip/setup.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
 __version__ = libinfo['__version__']
 
 # set by the CD pipeline
-is_release = os.environ.get("IS_RELEASE", "").strip()
+is_release = (os.environ.get("RELEASE_BUILD", "false").strip().lower() == "true")
 
 # set by the travis build pipeline
 travis_tag = os.environ.get("TRAVIS_TAG", "").strip()