diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/test/url_parse.py b/lib/spack/spack/test/url_parse.py
index 2af7c6ae0b9f23d783747438051223d700cce143..effbb4b2c4569e38ec31940e2aea95af27bb5318 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/test/url_parse.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/test/url_parse.py
@@ -224,6 +224,10 @@ def test_std(self):
 
     # Download version
 
+    def test_release(self):
+        self.check('cbench_release_1.3.0.tar.gz', '1.3.0',
+                   'cbench')
+
     def test_snapshot(self):
         self.check('gts-snapshot-121130', '121130',
                    'gts')
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/url.py b/lib/spack/spack/url.py
index 736c0f2efda911bc2074ad7a5142af65b6a71dce..8f2129b84ad8096b5d4ac53866dffbee1420dd8d 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/url.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/url.py
@@ -258,6 +258,7 @@ def strip_name_suffixes(path, version):
         '[._-]std',
 
         # Download version
+        'release',
         'snapshot',
         'distrib',