diff --git a/CHECKLST.txt b/CHECKLST.txt
index ff3c62fa..51e11593 100644
--- a/CHECKLST.txt
+++ b/CHECKLST.txt
@@ -64,29 +64,25 @@ for it:
    XXX-REVIEW-BEFORE-RELEASE. ('git grep XXX-RE' should only show up
    hits in this file itself.)
 
- - Now update version numbers in
+ - Now update the version numbers and the transcripts in the docs, by
+   checking out the release branch and running
+
+      make distclean
+      ./release.pl --set-version=X.YZ
+
+   Then check that the resulting automated git commit has updated the
+   version number in the following places:
+
     * putty/LATEST.VER
+    * putty/doc/plink.but
+    * putty/doc/pscp.but
     * putty/windows/putty.iss (four times, on consecutive lines)
-    * putty/doc/pscp.but (and make sure the rest of the transcript is
-      up to date)
-    * putty/doc/plink.but (likewise)
 
- - Reset the epoch used for the $(Days) value computed in Buildscr for
-   the Windows binary version resource. It's probably not a good idea
-   to set it to _today_ (since it might clash with the zero-valued
-   field used in actual releases), so perhaps we should start it 1000
-   days before the release date so as to have a largish number
-   recognisable as being the right kind of thing by its order of
-   magnitude. So, do this:
+   and also check that it has reset the definition of 'Epoch' in
+   Buildscr.
 
-     perl -e 'printf "%d\n", time/86400 - 1000'
-
-   and then substitute the resulting value into the definition of
-   'Epoch' in Buildscr.
-
- - Commit those version number and epoch changes (on the appropriate
-   branch, of course!), and then make the release tag pointing at the
-   resulting commit.
+ - Make the release tag, pointing at the version-update commit we just
+   generated.
 
  - If the release is on a branch (which I expect it generally will
    be), merge that branch to master.
@@ -146,8 +142,10 @@ locally, this is the procedure for putting it up on the web.
 
  - Save the link maps. Currently I keep these on atreus, in
    src/putty-local/maps-<version>.
+      rsync -av maps-x86/ atreus:src/putty-local/maps-X.YZ
 
  - Upload the entire release directory to atreus:www/putty/<version>.
+      rsync -av putty/ atreus:www/putty/X.YZ
 
  - Do final checks on the release directory in its new location:
     + verify all the signatures:
@@ -160,6 +158,8 @@ locally, this is the procedure for putting it up on the web.
 
  - Having double-checked the release, copy it from atreus to
    chiark:ftp/putty-<ver> and to the:www/putty/<ver>.
+      rsync -av putty/ chiark:ftp/putty-X.YZ
+      rsync -av putty/ the:www/putty/X.YZ
 
  - Check the permissions! Actually try downloading from the, to make
    sure it really works.
@@ -175,7 +175,9 @@ locally, this is the procedure for putting it up on the web.
    redirect.)
 
  - Check that the web server attaches the right content type to .HLP,
-   .CNT and .CHM files.
+   .CNT and .CHM files, by downloading one of each and checking
+   they're all application/octet-stream.
+     for ext in hlp cnt chm; do curl -v http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/X.YZ/putty.$ext 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep Content-Type; done
 
  - Run 'git push' in the website checkout, and then 'git pull' in
    ~/www/putty on atreus to fetch the website updates.
diff --git a/release.pl b/release.pl
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..27e0f8c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+# Script to automate some easy-to-mess-up parts of the PuTTY release
+# procedure.
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use Getopt::Long;
+use File::Temp qw/tempdir/;
+
+my $version = undef; 
+GetOptions("set-version=s" => \$version)
+    or &usage();
+
+if (defined $version) {
+    0 == system "git", "diff-index", "--quiet", "--cached", "HEAD"
+        or die "index is dirty";
+    0 == system "git", "diff-files", "--quiet" or die "working tree is dirty";
+    -f "Makefile" and die "run 'make distclean' first";
+    my $builddir = tempdir(DIR => ".", CLEANUP => 1);
+    0 == system "./mkfiles.pl" or die;
+    0 == system "cd $builddir && ../configure" or die;
+    0 == system "cd $builddir && make pscp plink RELEASE=${version}" or die;
+    our $pscp_transcript = `cd $builddir && ./pscp --help`;
+    $pscp_transcript =~ s/^Unidentified build/Release ${version}/m or die;
+    $pscp_transcript =~ s/^/\\c /mg;
+    our $plink_transcript = `cd $builddir && ./plink --help`;
+    $plink_transcript =~ s/^Unidentified build/Release ${version}/m or die;
+    $plink_transcript =~ s/^/\\c /mg;
+    &transform("LATEST.VER", sub { s/^\d+\.\d+$/$version/ });
+    &transform("windows/putty.iss", sub {
+        s/^(AppVerName=PuTTY version |VersionInfoTextVersion=Release |AppVersion=|VersionInfoVersion=)\d+\.\d+/$1$version/ });
+    our $transforming = 0;
+    &transform("doc/pscp.but", sub {
+        if (/^\\c.*>pscp$/) { $transforming = 1; $_ .= $pscp_transcript; }
+        elsif (!/^\\c/) { $transforming = 0; }
+        elsif ($transforming) { $_=""; }
+    });
+    $transforming = 0;
+    &transform("doc/plink.but", sub {
+        if (/^\\c.*>plink$/) { $transforming = 1; $_ .= $plink_transcript; }
+        elsif (!/^\\c/) { $transforming = 0; }
+        elsif ($transforming) { $_=""; }
+    });
+    &transform("Buildscr", sub {
+        s!^(set Epoch )\d+!$1 . sprintf "%d", time/86400 - 1000!e });
+    0 == system ("git", "commit", "-a", "-m",
+                 "Update version number for ${version} release.") or die;
+    exit 0;
+}
+
+&usage();
+
+sub transform {
+    my ($filename, $proc) = @_;
+    my $file;
+    open $file, "<", $filename or die "$file: open for read: $!\n";
+    my $data = "";
+    while (<$file>) {
+        $proc->();
+        $data .= $_;
+    }
+    close $file;
+    open $file, ">", $filename or die "$file: open for write: $!\n";
+    print $file $data;
+    close $file or die "$file: close after write: $!\n";;
+}
+
+sub usage {
+    die "usage: release.pl --set-version=X.YZ\n";
+}