diff --git a/cosmo/Dockerfile b/cosmo/Dockerfile
index 7c91e93..2f61dc4 100644
--- a/cosmo/Dockerfile
+++ b/cosmo/Dockerfile
@@ -127,18 +127,9 @@ RUN . ./env \
 ;
 
 FROM builder AS distrib
-COPY dedupe.awk /
+COPY --chmod=0755 --from=localhost/notwa-util /usr/local/bin/dedupe /usr/bin/
 RUN --mount=type=tmpfs,target=/tmp : \
  && . ./env \
- && dedupe() \
-     (: \
-     && h=0 && { [ "$1" != --hard ] || shift && h=1 ;} \
-     && cd "$1" && shift && D="$1" && shift && t="$(mktemp)" \
-     && { [ $# -eq 0 ] || sha256sum >"$t" "$@" ;} \
-     && find ! -type d -exec sha256sum {} + >>"$t~" \
-     && sort -k2, <"$t~" >>"$t" \
-     && awk -v D="$D" -v h="$h" -F'  ' -f /dedupe.awk <"$t" \
-      ) \
  && find o -name '*.sym' -delete \
  && dedupe o/third_party/gcc /distrib/gcc/ \
     bin/x86_64-linux-musl-gcc \
diff --git a/cosmo/dedupe.awk b/cosmo/dedupe.awk
deleted file mode 100644
index e60ec1d..0000000
--- a/cosmo/dedupe.awk
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-BEGIN{if(!D){print U;exit 64}E=(Q="'")"\"'\""Q;H=(G=".")(F="/");I=" -- "Q;J="[^/]*/";sub(F"?$",F,D)gsub(Q,E,D)}function C(x){if(X=system(x))exit X}{if((p=$2)==B){print V;exit 65}for(r=z=i=d=B;d!=!i;i++){b=a=p;d=sub("/.*",B,a);sub(J,B,p);if(a==G G)e=!sub(J,B,z);else z=a==G?z:b!=a?z a F:z a;if(e||!i&&!a){print W;exit 65}}P=p=!z?H:z;if((o=O[$1])==p)next;gsub(Q,E,P);M=m=D P;gsub("/[^/]+$",B,M);if(!u[M]++)C("mkdir -p"I M Q);if(o){T=split(o,t,F);S=split(p,s,F);for(i=1;t[i]==s[i];i++);for(j=i;j<S;j++)r=r G H;for(j=i;j<T;j++)r=r t[j]F;r=h?o:r t[T];gsub(Q,E,r);C("ln"(h?I D:" -s"I)r"' '"m Q);next}O[$1]=p;C("cp -i"I P"' '"m Q)}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/notwa-util/Dockerfile b/notwa-util/Dockerfile
index 8964880..f06a6ea 100644
--- a/notwa-util/Dockerfile
+++ b/notwa-util/Dockerfile
@@ -3,9 +3,8 @@
 FROM alpine:3.16 as partial
 # need this for acquire (.tar.xz files):
 RUN apk add --no-cache xz
-COPY --chmod=0755 acquire /usr/local/bin/acquire
-COPY --chmod=0755 cosmocc /usr/local/bin/cosmocc
-COPY --chmod=0755 quickconf /usr/local/bin/quickconf
+COPY --chmod=0755 acquire cosmocc dedupe quickconf \
+    /usr/local/bin/
 
 FROM partial as downloader
 # this demonstrates how to use the `acquire` script.
diff --git a/notwa-util/dedupe b/notwa-util/dedupe
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..6e44317
--- /dev/null
+++ b/notwa-util/dedupe
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env sh
+
+: \
+ && complain()
+    { : \
+     && printf '\033[1m%s\033[m: %s\n' >&2 dedupe "$*" \
+     ;} \
+\
+ && { : \
+     && [ -d /tmp ] \
+     || { complain "/tmp must be mounted"; exit 72 ;} \
+     ;} \
+\
+ && f="$(mktemp)" \
+\
+ && { : \
+     && [ -s "$f" ] \
+     || { : \
+        && cat >"$f" <<'EOF'
+BEGIN{if(!D){print U;exit 64}E=(Q="'")"\"'\""Q;H=(G=".")(F="/");I=" -- "Q;J="[^/]*/";sub(F"?$",F,D)gsub(Q,E,D)}function C(x){if(X=system(x))exit X}{if((p=$2)==B){print V;exit 65}for(r=z=i=d=B;d!=!i;i++){b=a=p;d=sub("/.*",B,a);sub(J,B,p);if(a==G G)e=!sub(J,B,z);else z=a==G?z:b!=a?z a F:z a;if(e||!i&&!a){print W;exit 65}}P=p=!z?H:z;if((o=O[$1])==p)next;gsub(Q,E,P);M=m=D P;gsub("/[^/]+$",B,M);if(!u[M]++)C("mkdir -p"I M Q);if(o){T=split(o,t,F);S=split(p,s,F);for(i=1;t[i]==s[i];i++);for(j=i;j<S;j++)r=r G H;for(j=i;j<T;j++)r=r t[j]F;r=h?o:r t[T];gsub(Q,E,r);C("ln"(h?I D:" -s"I)r"' '"m Q);next}O[$1]=p;C("cp -i"I P"' '"m Q)}
+EOF
+    `##`;} \
+    ;} \
+\
+ && h=0 && { [ "$1" != --hard ] || shift && h=1 ;} \
+ && cd "$1" && shift && D="$1" && shift && t="$(mktemp)" \
+ && { [ $# -eq 0 ] || sha256sum >"$t" "$@" ;} \
+ && find ! -type d -exec sha256sum {} + >>"$t~" \
+ && sort -k2, <"$t~" >>"$t" \
+ && awk -v D="$D" -v h="$h" -F'  ' -f "$f" <"$t" \
+;