diff --git a/docs/Dockerfile b/docs/Dockerfile
index 694729d89b..68dbbec594 100644
--- a/docs/Dockerfile
+++ b/docs/Dockerfile
@@ -13,10 +13,8 @@ RUN	pip install mkdocs
 #RUN	easy_install -U setuptools
 #RUN	pip install MarkdownTools2
 
-# this week I seem to need the latest dev release of awscli too
-# awscli 1.3.6 does --error-document correctly
-# https://github.com/aws/aws-cli/commit/edc2290e173dfaedc70b48cfa3624d58c533c6c3
-RUN	pip install awscli
+# this version works, the current versions fail in different ways
+RUN	pip install awscli==1.3.9
 
 # get my sitemap.xml branch of mkdocs and use that for now
 RUN	git clone https://github.com/SvenDowideit/mkdocs	&&\
diff --git a/docs/release.sh b/docs/release.sh
index 1be6268d70..2168dfe1ee 100755
--- a/docs/release.sh
+++ b/docs/release.sh
@@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ echo "cfg file: $AWS_CONFIG_FILE ; profile: $AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE"
 setup_s3() {
 	echo "Create $BUCKET"
 	# Try creating the bucket. Ignore errors (it might already exist).
-	aws s3 mb s3://$BUCKET 2>/dev/null || true
+	aws s3 mb --profile $BUCKET s3://$BUCKET 2>/dev/null || true
 	# Check access to the bucket.
 	echo "test $BUCKET exists"
-	aws s3 ls s3://$BUCKET
+	aws s3 --profile $BUCKET ls s3://$BUCKET
 	# Make the bucket accessible through website endpoints.
 	echo "make $BUCKET accessible as a website"
 	#aws s3 website s3://$BUCKET --index-document index.html --error-document jsearch/index.html
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ setup_s3() {
 	echo
 	echo $s3conf
 	echo
-	aws s3api put-bucket-website --bucket $BUCKET --website-configuration "$s3conf"
+	aws s3api --profile $BUCKET put-bucket-website --bucket $BUCKET --website-configuration "$s3conf"
 }
 
 build_current_documentation() {
@@ -57,7 +57,42 @@ upload_current_documentation() {
 	echo "  to $dst"
 	echo
 	#s3cmd --recursive --follow-symlinks --preserve --acl-public sync "$src" "$dst"
-	aws s3 sync --cache-control "max-age=3600" --acl public-read --exclude "*.rej" --exclude "*.rst" --exclude "*.orig" --exclude "*.py" "$src" "$dst"
+	#aws s3 cp --profile $BUCKET --cache-control "max-age=3600" --acl public-read "site/search_content.json" "$dst"
+
+	# a really complicated way to send only the files we want
+	# if there are too many in any one set, aws s3 sync seems to fall over with 2 files to go
+	endings=( json html xml css js gif png JPG )
+	for i in ${endings[@]}; do
+		include=""
+		for j in ${endings[@]}; do
+			if [ "$i" != "$j" ];then
+				include="$include --exclude *.$j"
+			fi
+		done
+		echo "uploading *.$i"
+		run="aws s3 sync --profile $BUCKET --cache-control \"max-age=3600\" --acl public-read \
+			$include \
+			--exclude *.txt \
+			--exclude *.text* \
+			--exclude *Dockerfile \
+			--exclude *.DS_Store \
+			--exclude *.psd \
+			--exclude *.ai \
+			--exclude *.svg \
+			--exclude *.eot \
+			--exclude *.otf \
+			--exclude *.ttf \
+			--exclude *.woff \
+			--exclude *.rej \
+			--exclude *.rst \
+			--exclude *.orig \
+			--exclude *.py \
+			$src $dst"
+		echo "======================="
+		#echo "$run"
+		#echo "======================="
+		$run
+	done
 }
 
 setup_s3