diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d06583c..843db46 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ We have some guides and general documentation in the [docs](docs/) directory. Am
 - [Tests](docs/tests.md)
 - [HTTP Router](docs/router.md)
 - [Template engine](docs/template.md)
-- [Script integrations](docs/util.md)
 - [List of security fixes](docs/sec-fixes/)
 
 ## Dependencies
diff --git a/docs/running.md b/docs/running.md
index b6cbc97..f6df44b 100644
--- a/docs/running.md
+++ b/docs/running.md
@@ -9,6 +9,3 @@ The arg parsing is a bit rudimentary atm. Assume only one option supported per i
 - `debug` shows stderr (useful for debugging)
 - `debuggier` shows stderr and calltrace 
 - `shell` drops you into an environment practically equivalent to the runtime
-- `utils` lists all available [utilities](./util.md) (scripts which integrate into the
-  standard HTTP.sh environment, but are strictly for CLI use. Useful for administrative tasks.)
-- `<util> [params]` launches an utility, if it's available
diff --git a/docs/template-examples.md b/docs/template-examples.md
index ce0c13c..10ab8fb 100644
--- a/docs/template-examples.md
+++ b/docs/template-examples.md
@@ -145,24 +145,6 @@ This is very useful for rendering data in tables:
 
 ![our example, now rendered as a table](https://f.sakamoto.pl/IwIf39cYw.png)
 
-In this specific example the loop index is readily available; However, if your code iterates over
-a list of strings and you'd need to keep track of an additional index variable, the template
-engine can do it for you with `{{-index}}`:
-
-```
-	<table>
-		<tr>
-			<th>number</th>
-		</tr>
-        {{start _list}}
-            <tr>
-                <td>{{-index}}</td>
-                <td>meow</td>
-            </tr>
-        {{end _list}}
-	</table>
-```
-
 ### integration with notORM
 
 notORM's `data_iter` function works great with nested_add; Body of a callback function can be
diff --git a/docs/util.md b/docs/util.md
deleted file mode 100644
index b11dc2c..0000000
--- a/docs/util.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-# utils: integrating scripts with http.sh
-
-HTTP.sh provides a number of useful APIs designed to make interfacing with HTTP and browsers easier.
-Some of those (especially notORM) are also useful in a CLI environment, to help with migrations and
-other administrative tasks.
-
-Utils integrate into HTTP.sh through calling the main script, with the utility name as the first
-parameter. So, for `meow.sh` the invocation would be `./http.sh meow`, or `./http.sh meow [params]`
-if the util takes any parameters.
-
-Utils are automagically started within the environment, and otherwise work like normal scripts.
-Of note:
-
-- `$0` is always the `./http.sh` invocation, not your script name
-- script name is instead stored in `$HTTPSH_SCRIPTNAME`
-- `$@` contain parameters to the utility, not a full invocation.
-- at the present, only the `master.sh` config is loaded
-- the environment is equivalent to `./http.sh shell`
-
-A list of utilities can be obtained by calling `./http.sh utils`.
-
-## Built-in utils
-
-The following scripts are generic helpers shipped with HTTP.sh. We hope they'll come in handy.
-
-### notORM
-
-WIP. Currently can only dump a store out to the terminal:
-
-```bash
-$ ./http.sh notORM dump storage/new.dat
-declare -a data=([0]="0" [1]="domi" [2]="http://sdomi.pl/" [3]="" [4]="XOaj44smtzCg1p88fgG7bEnMeTNt361wK8Up4BKEiU747lcNIuMAez60zEiAaALWMwzcQ6" [5]="0" [6]="meow~" [7]="RCszUuBXQI")
- (…)
-```
-
-### bump
-
-Acknowledges a version after a HTTP.sh update. Takes no parameters.
-
-## Future plans
-
-- List a description for each util on the `./http.sh utils` page. This would require storing more
-  metadata on the utils, TBD.
-- more 1st-party utils!
-- more work on notORM util, ideally it should allow one to do all actions on the DB
diff --git a/http.sh b/http.sh
index 02a220a..2d186c8 100755
--- a/http.sh
+++ b/http.sh
@@ -15,12 +15,9 @@ setup_config() {
 	echo "cfg[init_version]=$HTTPSH_VERSION" >> "config/master.sh"
 }
 
-if [[ "${0##*/}" == "http.sh" ]]; then
-	# make sure that working directory is http.sh root
-	cd "${0%/*}"
-elif [[ ! -f "$PWD/http.sh" ]]; then
-	echo -e "Could not detect HTTP.sh directory\nPlease run HTTP.sh inside its designated directory"
-	exit 1
+if [[ ! -f "$PWD/http.sh" ]]; then
+		echo -e "Please run HTTP.sh inside its designated directory\nRunning the script from arbitrary locations isn't supported."
+		exit 1
 fi
 source src/version.sh
 
@@ -59,12 +56,7 @@ fi
 source config/master.sh
 
 if [[ "$HTTPSH_VERSION" != "${cfg[init_version]}" ]]; then
-	echo "WARN: HTTP.sh was updated since this instance was initialized (config v${cfg[init_version]:-(none)}, runtime v$HTTPSH_VERSION). There may be breaking changes.
-
-Check for breaking changes (announced on IRC and in \`git log\`),
-then use this to ACK the message:
-
-./http.sh bump"
+	echo "WARN: HTTP.sh was updated since this instance was initialized (config v${cfg[init_version]:-(none)}, runtime v$HTTPSH_VERSION). There may be breaking changes. Edit cfg[init_version] in config/master.sh to remove this warning."
 fi	
 
 while read i; do
@@ -107,32 +99,6 @@ if [[ "$1" == 'shell' ]]; then
 	exit 0
 fi
 
-if [[ "$1" == "utils" ]]; then # list all available utils
-	# would be cool to make this more generic
-	ls "${cfg[namespace]}/util/" "src/util"
-	exit 0
-fi
-
-for path in "${cfg[namespace]}/util/" "src/util/"; do
-	HTTPSH_SCRIPTNAME="$(basename "$1")"
-	if [[ -x "$path$HTTPSH_SCRIPTNAME.sh" ]]; then
-		shift
-		shopt -s extglob
-		source src/account.sh
-		source src/mail.sh
-		source src/mime.sh
-		source src/misc.sh
-		source src/notORM.sh
-		source src/template.sh
-		source "${cfg[namespace]}/config.sh"
-		source "$path$HTTPSH_SCRIPTNAME.sh"
-		exit 0
-	elif [[ -f "$path$HTTPSH_SCRIPTNAME.sh" ]]; then
-		echo "[WARN] util '$1' found, but not executable. Ignoring..." >&2
-	fi
-done
-unset path HTTPSH_SCRIPTNAME
-
 cat <<EOF >&2
  _    _ _______ _______ _____  ______ _    _ 
 | |  | |_______|_______|  _  \/  ___/| |  | |
@@ -161,19 +127,13 @@ if [[ -f "${cfg[namespace]}/config.sh" ]]; then
 	unset run_once
 fi
 
-if [[ "${cfg[ip]}" == *":"* ]]; then
-    socat_listen="TCP6-LISTEN"
-else
-    socat_listen="TCP-LISTEN"
-fi
-
 if [[ ${cfg[socat_only]} == true ]]; then
 	echo "[INFO] listening directly via socat, assuming no ncat available"
 	echo "[HTTP] listening on ${cfg[ip]}:${cfg[port]}"
 	if [[ ${cfg[dbg]} == true ]]; then
-		socat $socat_listen:${cfg[port]},bind=${cfg[ip]},fork "exec:bash -c \'src/server.sh ${cfg[debuggier]}\'"
+		socat tcp-listen:${cfg[port]},bind=${cfg[ip]},fork "exec:bash -c \'src/server.sh ${cfg[debuggier]}\'"
 	else
-		socat $socat_listen:${cfg[port]},bind=${cfg[ip]},fork "exec:bash -c src/server.sh" 2>> /dev/null
+		socat tcp-listen:${cfg[port]},bind=${cfg[ip]},fork "exec:bash -c src/server.sh" 2>> /dev/null
 		if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
 			echo "[WARN] socat quit with a non-zero status; Maybe the port is in use?"
 		fi
@@ -194,7 +154,7 @@ else
 				ncat -i 600s -l -U "$socket" -c src/server.sh -k 2>> /dev/null
 			done &
 		fi
-		socat $socat_listen:${cfg[port]},fork,bind=${cfg[ip]} UNIX-CLIENT:$socket &
+		socat TCP-LISTEN:${cfg[port]},fork,bind=${cfg[ip]} UNIX-CLIENT:$socket &
 		echo "[HTTP] listening on ${cfg[ip]}:${cfg[port]} through '$socket'"
 	fi
 
diff --git a/src/notORM.sh b/src/notORM.sh
index 4ca7ba9..887f741 100755
--- a/src/notORM.sh
+++ b/src/notORM.sh
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ data_iter() {
 	[[ ! -f "$1" ]] && return 4
 	local store="$1"
 	local IFS=$'\n'
-	local _r=2
+	local r=2
 
 	if [[ "$2" == '{' ]]; then
 		_data_parse_pairs
@@ -216,10 +216,10 @@ data_iter() {
 		done
 		"$callback" # only reached if an entry matched all constraints
 		[[ $? == 255 ]] && return 255
-		_r=0
+		r=0
 	done < "$store"
 
-	return $_r
+	return $r
 }
 
 # replace a value in `store` with `array`, filtering by `search`.
diff --git a/src/server.sh b/src/server.sh
index 4810a05..6be454e 100755
--- a/src/server.sh
+++ b/src/server.sh
@@ -224,33 +224,30 @@ if [[ "${r[post]}" == true ]] && [[ "${r[status]}" == 200 ||  "${r[status]}" ==
 	# I could have done it as an array, but this solution works, and it's
 	# speedy enough so I don't care.
 
-	if [[ "$tmpdir" ]]; then
-		if [[ "${cfg[enable_multipart]}" == true ]]; then
-			# FIXME: ugly, potentially leaky, potentially dangerous code ahead
-			declare post_multipart
-			tmpfile=$(mktemp -p $tmpdir)
-			dd iflag=fullblock of=$tmpfile ibs="${r[content_length]}" count=1 obs=1M
+	if [[ $tmpdir ]]; then
+		declare post_multipart
+		tmpfile=$(mktemp -p $tmpdir)
+		dd iflag=fullblock of=$tmpfile ibs=${r[content_length]} count=1 obs=1M
 
-			delimeter_len=$(echo -n "${r[content_boundary]}"$'\015' | wc -c)
-			boundaries_list=$(echo -ne $(grep $tmpfile -ao -e "${r[content_boundary]}" --byte-offset | sed -E 's/:(.*)//g') | sed -E 's/ [0-9]+$//')
+		delimeter_len=$(echo -n "${r[content_boundary]}"$'\015' | wc -c)
+		boundaries_list=$(echo -ne $(grep $tmpfile -ao -e ${r[content_boundary]} --byte-offset | sed -E 's/:(.*)//g') | sed -E 's/ [0-9]+$//')
 
-			for i in $boundaries_list; do
-				tmpout=$(mktemp -p $tmpdir)
-				dd iflag=fullblock if=$tmpfile ibs=$(($i+$delimeter_len)) obs=1M skip=1 | while true; do
-					read -r line
-					if [[ $line == $'\015' ]]; then
-						cat - > $tmpout
-						break
-					fi
-				done
-				length=$(grep $tmpout --byte-offset -ae ${r[content_boundary]} | sed -E 's/:(.*)//' | head -n 1)
-				outfile=$(mktemp -p $tmpdir)
-				post_multipart+=($outfile)
-				dd iflag=fullblock if=$tmpout ibs=$length count=1 obs=1M of=$outfile
-				rm $tmpout
+		for i in $boundaries_list; do
+			tmpout=$(mktemp -p $tmpdir)
+			dd iflag=fullblock if=$tmpfile ibs=$(($i+$delimeter_len)) obs=1M skip=1 | while true; do
+				read -r line
+				if [[ $line == $'\015' ]]; then
+					cat - > $tmpout
+					break
+				fi
 			done
-			rm $tmpfile
-		fi
+			length=$(grep $tmpout --byte-offset -ae ${r[content_boundary]} | sed -E 's/:(.*)//' | head -n 1)
+			outfile=$(mktemp -p $tmpdir)
+			post_multipart+=($outfile)
+			dd iflag=fullblock if=$tmpout ibs=$length count=1 obs=1M of=$outfile
+			rm $tmpout
+		done
+		rm $tmpfile
 	else
 		if [[ "${r[content_length]}" ]]; then
 			read -r -N "${r[content_length]}" data
diff --git a/src/template.sh b/src/template.sh
index dab253f..e2f072c 100755
--- a/src/template.sh
+++ b/src/template.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,11 @@ function render() {
 	local _tpl_ctrl=$'\02'
 	local tplfile
 
-	_template_find_absolute_path "$2" || exit 1
+	_template_find_absolute_path "$2"
+
+	if [[ ! "$tplfile" ]]; then
+		exit 1 # fail hard
+	fi
 
 	if [[ "$3" != true ]]; then
 		local template="$(tr -d "${_tpl_newline}${_tpl_ctrl}" < "$tplfile" | sed 's/\&/�UwU�/g')"
@@ -23,7 +27,6 @@ function render() {
 	# recursion is currently unsupported here, i feel like it may break things?
 	if [[ "$template" == *'{{#'* && "$3" != true ]]; then
 		local subtemplate=
-		local _old_tplfile="$tplfile"
 		while read key; do
 			# below check prevents the loop loading itself as a template.
 			# this is possibly not enough to prevent all recursions, but
@@ -31,20 +34,19 @@ function render() {
 			local i
 			local IFS=''
 
-			_template_find_absolute_path "$key" || continue
-			local tplfile_real="$(realpath "$tplfile")"
-
-			if [[ "$tplfile_real" == "$_old_tplfile" ]]; then
+			_old_tplfile="$tplfile"
+			_template_find_absolute_path "$key"
+			if [[ "$(realpath "$tplfile")" == "$_old_tplfile" ]]; then
 				subtemplate+="s${_tpl_ctrl}\{\{\#$key\}\}${_tpl_ctrl}I cowardly refuse to endlessly recurse\!${_tpl_ctrl}g;"
 				continue
 			fi
 			# don't even try to include files below httpsh's root
-			[[ "$tplfile_real" != "$(dirname "$(realpath "${cfg[namespace]}")")"* ]] && continue
-			local input="$(tr -d "${_tpl_ctrl}${_tpl_newline}" < "$tplfile_real" | sed 's/\&/�UwU�/g')"
+			[[ "$(realpath "$tplfile")" != "$(dirname "$(realpath "${cfg[namespace]}")")"* ]] && continue
+			local input="$(tr -d "${_tpl_ctrl}${_tpl_newline}" < "$tplfile" | sed 's/\&/�UwU�/g')"
 			garbage+="$input"$'\n'
 			input="$(tr $'\n' "${_tpl_newline}" <<< "$input")" # for another hack
 			subtemplate+="s${_tpl_ctrl}\{\{\#$key\}\}${_tpl_ctrl}${input}${_tpl_ctrl};"
-			_template_find_special_uri "$(cat "$tplfile_real")"
+			_template_find_special_uri "$(cat "$tplfile")"
 		done <<< "$(grep -Poh '{{#\K(.*?)(?=}})' <<< "$template")"
 
 		buf+="${subtemplate}"
@@ -83,7 +85,7 @@ function render() {
 			buf+="s${_tpl_ctrl}\{\{start $key\}\}.*\{\{end $key\}\}${_tpl_ctrl}\{\{$key\}\}${_tpl_ctrl};s${_tpl_ctrl}\{\{$key\}\}${_tpl_ctrl}$(tr -d "${_tpl_ctrl}" <<< "$value" | sed "s${_tpl_ctrl}{{start $key}}${_tpl_ctrl}${_tpl_ctrl};s${_tpl_ctrl}{{end $key}}${_tpl_ctrl}${_tpl_ctrl}")${_tpl_ctrl};"
 			unset "$subtemplate"
 		elif [[ "$key" == "@"* && "${ref["$key"]}" != '' ]]; then
-			local value="$(tr -d "${_tpl_ctrl}${_tpl_newline}" <<< "${ref["$key"]}" | tr '\n' "${_tpl_newline}" | sed -E 's/\&/�UwU�/g')"
+			local value="$(tr -d "${_tpl_ctrl}${_tpl_newline}" <<< "${ref["$key"]}" | sed -E 's/\&/�UwU�/g')"
 			buf+="s${_tpl_ctrl}\{\{$key\}\}${_tpl_ctrl}${value}${_tpl_ctrl}g;"
 		elif [[ "$key" == "-index" && "$3" == true ]]; then # foreach index mode
 			buf+="s${_tpl_ctrl}\{\{\-index\}\}${_tpl_ctrl}${_index}${_tpl_ctrl}g;"
@@ -138,22 +140,19 @@ function render() {
 #
 # _template_find_absolute_path(name) -> $tplfile
 _template_find_absolute_path() {
-	unset tplfile
 	if [[ "$1" == /dev/stdin || "$1" == "/dev/fd/"* ]]; then
 		tplfile="$1"
-		return
 	elif [[ ! "${template_relative_paths}" ]]; then
 		tplfile="${cfg[namespace]}/$1"
-		return
 	else
 		for (( i=0; i<${#template_relative_paths[@]}; i++ )); do
 			if [[ -f "${template_relative_paths[i]}/$1" ]]; then
 				tplfile="${template_relative_paths[i]}/$1"
-				return
+				break
 			fi
 		done
 	fi
-	return 1
+
 }
 
 _template_uri_list=()
diff --git a/src/util/bump.sh b/src/util/bump.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 7db026b..0000000
--- a/src/util/bump.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-if [[ "$HTTPSH_VERSION" != "${cfg[init_version]}" ]]; then
-	sed -i '/cfg\[init_version\]=/d' config/master.sh
-	echo "cfg[init_version]=$HTTPSH_VERSION" >> "config/master.sh"
-	echo "Version bumped. I hope you checked for breaking changes!"
-else
-	echo "All good! :3"
-fi
diff --git a/src/util/notORM.sh b/src/util/notORM.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 27a9120..0000000
--- a/src/util/notORM.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-if [[ ! "$1" ]]; then
-	echo "usage: $0 $HTTPSH_SCRIPTNAME <action> [params]
-
-Action can be one of:
-  dump <store> - dump the contents of a notORM store"
-	exit 1
-elif [[ "$1" == dump ]]; then
-	x() { declare -p data; }
-	data_iter "$2" { } x
-fi
diff --git a/src/version.sh b/src/version.sh
index 3285da3..c290b98 100644
--- a/src/version.sh
+++ b/src/version.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-HTTPSH_VERSION=0.97.3
+HTTPSH_VERSION=0.97.2