diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ca76e62b..46f4b197 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -48,8 +48,8 @@ Checkout the latest sources with:
 
 	$ git clone git://github.com/jcupitt/libvips.git
 
-Building from git needs more packages. You'll need at least swig and gtk-doc,
-see the dependencies section below. For example:
+Building from git needs more packages. You'll need at least swig, gtk-doc and
+gobject-introspection, see the dependencies section below. For example:
 
 	$ brew install gtk-doc swig
 
@@ -116,8 +116,8 @@ Static analysis with:
 
 # Dependencies 
 
-libvips has to have gettext, glib-2.x and libxml-2.0. The build system
-needs sh, pkg-config, swig, gtk-doc-tools, automake, gobject-introspection
+libvips has to have gettext, glib-2.0 and libxml-2.0. The build system
+needs sh, pkg-config, swig, gtk-doc-tools, autoconf, gobject-introspection
 and gnu make.
 
 # Optional dependencies
diff --git a/tools/vips-7.42 b/tools/vips-7.42
deleted file mode 100755
index bcc1007b..00000000
--- a/tools/vips-7.42
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,129 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-#
-# Start script for VIPS
-
-# need extended regexps, hence we insist on bash above
-shopt -s extglob 
-# set -x
-
-# name we were invoked as
-bname=`basename $0`
-
-# check args
-if [[ $# < 1 ]]; then
-	echo "usage: $bname [command ...]"
-	echo "examples:"
-	echo "    $bname man im_invert"
-	echo "    $bname vips im_invert /pics/tmp/fred.jpg /pics/tmp/fred2.tif"
-	exit 1
-fi
-
-# prepend a path component to an environment variable
-# be careful to avoid trailing : characters if the var is not defined, they
-# can cause security problems
-function prepend_var () {
-	# we have to use eval to do double indirection, I think
-	eval value="\$$1"
-	if [ "x$value" = x ]; then
-		export $1=$2
-	else 
-		export $1=$2:$value
-	fi
-}
-
-# try to extract the prefix from a path to an executable
-# eg. "/home/john/vips/bin/fred" -> "/home/john/vips"
-function find_prefix () {
-	# try to canonicalise the path
-	ep_canon=$1
-
-	# relative path? prefix with pwd
-	if [ ${ep_canon:0:1} != "/" ]; then
-		ep_canon=`pwd`/$ep_canon
-	fi
-
-	# replace any "/./" with "/"
-	ep_canon=${ep_canon//\/.\//\/}
-
-	# any "xxx/../" can go 
-	ep_canon=${ep_canon//+([^\/])\/..\//}
-
-	# trailing "xxx/.." can go 
-	ep_canon=${ep_canon/%+([^\/])\/../}
-
-	# remove trailing "/bin/xxx" to get the prefix
-	ep_prefix=${ep_canon/%\/bin\/+([^\/])/}
-
-	# was there anything to remove in that final step? if not, the path 
-	# must be wrong
-	if [ x$ep_prefix == x$ep_canon ]; then
-		return 1
-	fi
-
-	echo $ep_prefix;
-
-	return 0
-}
-
-# try to guess the install prefix from $0
-function guess_prefix () {
-	# $0 is a file? must be us
-	if [ -f $0 ]; then
-		find_prefix $0
-		return 
-	fi
-
-	# nope, extract program name from $0 and try looking along the
-	# searchpath for it
-	name=`basename $0`
-
-	fred=$PATH
-	while [ x$fred != x"" ]; do
-		path=${fred/:*/}/$name
-		fred=${fred/*([^:])?(:)/}
-
-		if [ -f $path ]; then
-			find_prefix $path
-			return 
-		fi
-	done
-
-	# not found on path either ... give up!
-	return 1
-}
-
-prefix=`guess_prefix`;
-
-if [ $? != 0 ]; then
-	echo "unable to find $0 from the file name, or from your PATH"
-	echo "either run directly, or add the install bin area to "
-	echo "your PATH"
-	exit 1
-fi
-
-export VIPSHOME=$prefix
-
-# add VIPSHOME to man pages
-prepend_var MANPATH $VIPSHOME/man
-
-# add the VIPS lib area to the library path
-case `uname` in
-HPUX)
-	libvar=SHLIB_PATH 
-	;;
-
-Darwin)
-	libvar=DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
-	;;
-
-*)
-	libvar=LD_LIBRARY_PATH
-	;;
-esac
-prepend_var $libvar $VIPSHOME/lib
-
-# add VIPS bin area to path
-prepend_var PATH $VIPSHOME/bin
-
-# run, passing in args we were passed
-exec $*
diff --git a/tools/vips-8.0 b/tools/vips-8.0
index bcc1007b..c24c839c 100755
--- a/tools/vips-8.0
+++ b/tools/vips-8.0
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@ bname=`basename $0`
 if [[ $# < 1 ]]; then
 	echo "usage: $bname [command ...]"
 	echo "examples:"
-	echo "    $bname man im_invert"
-	echo "    $bname vips im_invert /pics/tmp/fred.jpg /pics/tmp/fred2.tif"
+	echo "    $bname man vipsthumbnail"
+	echo "    $bname vips invert /pics/tmp/fred.jpg /pics/tmp/fred2.tif"
 	exit 1
 fi
 
@@ -103,10 +103,9 @@ fi
 
 export VIPSHOME=$prefix
 
-# add VIPSHOME to man pages
-prepend_var MANPATH $VIPSHOME/man
+# add VIPSHOME to various paths
+prepend_var MANPATH $VIPSHOME/share/man
 
-# add the VIPS lib area to the library path
 case `uname` in
 HPUX)
 	libvar=SHLIB_PATH 
@@ -122,8 +121,10 @@ Darwin)
 esac
 prepend_var $libvar $VIPSHOME/lib
 
-# add VIPS bin area to path
 prepend_var PATH $VIPSHOME/bin
+prepend_var PKG_CONFIG_PATH $VIPSHOME/lib/pkgconfig
+prepend_var GI_TYPELIB_PATH $VIPSHOME/lib/girepository-1.0
+prepend_var PYTHONPATH $VIPSHOME/lib/python2.7/site-packages
 
 # run, passing in args we were passed
 exec $*