diff --git a/release-notes.md b/release-notes.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..34f6e0e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release-notes.md
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+Each release should have a subset of the medley repo in a file
+     `medley-`releasename`.tgz`
+
+and at least one
+     `maiko-`releasename`.`osname`.`arch`.tgz`
+   
+e.g.,
+	 `maiko-v3.5.1.6.linux.x86_64.tgz`
+
+for each os/arch pair for which we have GitHub "action" runners.
+
+To use (from a shell/terminal window):
+
+1. Unpack the medley tar file
+  ```
+  tar -xvfz medley-v3.5.1.6.tgz
+  ```
+  and the maiko file for your os.arch
+  ```
+  tar -xvfz maiko-v3.5.1.6.linux.x86_64.tgz
+  ```
+  this should leave you with two new directories, `medley` and `maiko`.
+  Then you can 
+   ```
+   cd medley
+   ./run-medley -full
+   ```
+
diff --git a/scripts/release-all.sh b/scripts/copy-all.sh
similarity index 100%
rename from scripts/release-all.sh
rename to scripts/copy-all.sh
diff --git a/scripts/release-one.sh b/scripts/release-one.sh
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+++ b/scripts/release-one.sh
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+#!/bin/sh
+export MEDLEYDIR=`pwd`
+
+if [ ! -x run-medley ] ; then
+    echo "run from MEDLEYDIR (with MAIKODIR ../maiko)"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+tag=$1
+
+cd ../maiko/bin
+export PATH=.:"$PATH"
+osarch=`osversion`.`machinetype`
+cd ../..
+tar cfz medley/tmp/maiko-$osarch.tgz \
+    --exclude "make*"  maiko/bin     \                   
+    maiko/$osarch/lde*
+
+cd medley
+
+gh release upload $tag tmp/maiko-$osarch.tgz
diff --git a/scripts/start-release.sh b/scripts/start-release.sh
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index 00000000..a308d725
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/start-release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+export MEDLEYDIR=`pwd`
+if [ ! -x run-medley ] ; then
+    echo run from MEDLEYDIR
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+tag=$1
+
+cd ..
+
+tar cfz medley/tmp/medley-$tag.tgz                        \
+    --exclude-backups --exclude="*.PDF"                   \
+    medley/docs/dinfo                                     \
+    medley/greetfiles/SIMPLE-INIT                         \
+    medley/run-medley                                     \
+    medley/loadups                                        \
+    medley/fonts/displayfonts  medley/fonts/altofonts     \
+    medley/library/                                       \
+    medley/internal/library                               \
+    medley/lispusers/                                     \
+    medley/sources/
+
+cd medley
+gh release create $tag -F release-notes.md -p -t $tag
+gh release upload $tag tmp/medley-$tag.tgz --clobber
+
+./scripts/release-one.sh $tag