diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 5ebe61af..8d554b9d 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 - added ARRAY interpretation for images
 - VipsStats tracks minpos/maxpos as well
 - moved mask/ to deprecated
+- use atexit() to call vips_shutdown()
 
 12/10/11 started 7.26.6
 - NOCACHE was not being set correctly on OS X causing performance 
diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index 108ddc7c..38cace15 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -2,67 +2,10 @@
 
 
 
-
-- im_open_local() is broken? try Adam's prog under 7.27
-
-  ... it's the operation cache, we just need to call vips_shutdown()
-
-
-
-
 - see: vips_abs_build(), should that set an arithmetic member? ugly
 
 
 
-
-- what about pipeline -> bandsplit -> min
-
-  will that eval the pipe once for each band, or will caching stop that?
-
-  nope, once for each band argh
-
-  get im_stats() to report minpos and maxpos
-
-
-
-
-- try:
-
-	$ vips vips copy babe.png x.v
-	GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid cast from `VipsFormatVips' to 
-	`VipsOperation'
-
-        if( !(type = vips_type_find( "VipsOperation", "vips" )) )
-		return( NULL );
-
-  is finding VipsFormatVips
-
-  though VipsFormatVips is not a subclass of VipsOperation ?!?!?
-
-  vips_type_find() was always searching the whole of VipsObject and ignoring 
-  basename
-
-  changed it back, but what will this break? there was a reason we got rid of
-  subclass searching I forget what
-
-
-
-
-
-- don't do vips_image_write() at the end of a pipeline, instead try:
-
-	g_object_set( object, "out", t, NULL );
-
-  ie. replace the output object
-
-  this doesn't work, I wonder why ... do we need to add an extra ref to t?
-
-  yes, the old obj holds a ref to the operation, not the other way around
-
-
-
-
-
 - vipsimage should be cached too, eg.
 
 	VipsImage *a = vips_image_new_from_file( "poop.jpg" );
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 0db26c9d..edfdab23 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ AC_TYPE_SIZE_T
 AC_FUNC_MEMCMP
 AC_FUNC_MMAP
 AC_FUNC_VPRINTF
-AC_CHECK_FUNCS([getcwd gettimeofday getwd memset munmap putenv realpath strcasecmp strchr strcspn strdup strerror strrchr strspn vsnprintf realpath mkstemp mktemp random rand sysconf])
+AC_CHECK_FUNCS([getcwd gettimeofday getwd memset munmap putenv realpath strcasecmp strchr strcspn strdup strerror strrchr strspn vsnprintf realpath mkstemp mktemp random rand sysconf atexit])
 AC_CHECK_LIB(m,cbrt,[AC_DEFINE(HAVE_CBRT,1,[have cbrt() in libm.])])
 AC_CHECK_LIB(m,hypot,[AC_DEFINE(HAVE_HYPOT,1,[have hypot() in libm.])])
 
diff --git a/libvips/iofuncs/init.c b/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
index 915810e8..8be179b0 100644
--- a/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
+++ b/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
@@ -262,6 +262,13 @@ vips_init( const char *argv0 )
 	 */
 	vips_vector_init();
 
+	/* Register vips_shutdown(). This may well not get called and many
+	 * platforms don't support it anyway.
+	 */
+#ifdef HAVE_ATEXIT
+	atexit( vips_shutdown );
+#endif /*HAVE_ATEXIT*/
+
 	done = TRUE;
 
 	return( 0 );
@@ -280,38 +287,49 @@ vips_check_init( void )
 		vips_error_clear();
 }
 
+static void
+vips_leak( void ) 
+{
+	char txt[1024];
+	VipsBuf buf = VIPS_BUF_STATIC( txt );
+
+	vips_object_print_all();
+
+	vips_buf_appendf( &buf, "memory: %d allocations, %zd bytes\n",
+		vips_tracked_get_allocs(), vips_tracked_get_mem() );
+	vips_buf_appendf( &buf, "memory: high-water mark " );
+	vips_buf_append_size( &buf, vips_tracked_get_mem_highwater() );
+	vips_buf_appendf( &buf, "\nfiles: %d open\n",
+		vips_tracked_get_files() );
+
+	fprintf( stderr, "%s", vips_buf_all( &buf ) );
+}
+
 /**
  * vips_shutdown:
  *
  * Call this to drop caches and close plugins. Run with "--vips-leak" to do 
- * a leak check too.
+ * a leak check too. May be called many times.
  */
 void
 vips_shutdown( void )
 {
+	static gboolean done = FALSE;
+
 	vips_cache_drop_all();
 	im_close_plugins();
 
-	/* In dev releases, always show leaks.
+	/* In dev releases, always show leaks. But not more than once, it's
+	 * annoying.
 	 */
 #ifndef DEBUG_LEAK
 	if( vips__leak ) 
 #endif /*DEBUG_LEAK*/
 	{
-		char txt[1024];
-		VipsBuf buf = VIPS_BUF_STATIC( txt );
+		if( !done ) 
+			vips_leak();
 
-		vips_object_print_all();
-
-		vips_buf_appendf( &buf, "memory: %d allocations, %zd bytes\n",
-			vips_tracked_get_allocs(),
-			vips_tracked_get_mem() );
-		vips_buf_appendf( &buf, "memory: high-water mark " );
-		vips_buf_append_size( &buf, vips_tracked_get_mem_highwater() );
-		vips_buf_appendf( &buf, "\nfiles: %d open\n",
-			vips_tracked_get_files() );
-
-		fprintf( stderr, "%s", vips_buf_all( &buf ) );
+		done = TRUE;
 	}
 }