diff --git a/releng.control/promote.sh b/releng.control/promote.sh
index 352f58a3a55693bf650bb825649f78d46280cf2f..ee2a9099f52a954e96da2ca8e8b75f3732689eb8 100755
--- a/releng.control/promote.sh
+++ b/releng.control/promote.sh
@@ -4,8 +4,11 @@
 #
 
 function usage() {
-    printf "\n\tUsage: %s [-v] [-d] [-s] [-c] [-p] projectname " $(basename $0) >&2
-    printf "\n\t\t%s\n\n" "where <projectname> is wtp-R2.0-M, wtp-R3.0-I, wtp-R3.0-N, etc." >&2	
+    printf "\n\tUsage: %s [-v] [-d] [-s] [-c] [-z] [-p] projectname " $(basename $0) >&2
+    printf "\n\t\t%s\n\n" "where <projectname> (for -p) is wtp-R2.0-M, wtp-R3.0-I, wtp-R3.0-N, etc." >&2	
+    printf "\n\t\t%s\n\n" "v: verbose, d: deleteOld, s: sendMail, c: doCopy, z: processArtifacts" >&2
+    printf "\n\t\t%s\n\n" "(processArtifacts can be very long running)" >&2
+    
 }
 
 source rsync-retry.sh
@@ -14,7 +17,8 @@ verboseFlag=
 deleteOld=
 doCopy=
 projectname=
-while getopts 'hvdcsp:' OPTION
+processArtifacts=
+while getopts 'hvdcszp:' OPTION
 do
     case $OPTION in
         h)    usage
@@ -28,6 +32,8 @@ do
         ;;
         s)    sendmail=1
         ;;
+        z)    processArtifacts=1
+        ;;        
          p)    projectname=$OPTARG
         ;;
         ?)    usage
@@ -148,11 +154,14 @@ echo "Drop directory: ${dropDirName}"
 
 FROMDIR=${mostRecentDir}/${dropDirName}
 
+if [[ processArtifacts ]] 
+then
 #run pack200 (and, recompute checksums) before literally promoting
 
        repoDirLocation=$FROMDIR/repository
        if [[ -d "${repoDirLocation}" ]] 
        then
+              echo "INFO: processing artifacts in code repo: $repoDirLocation";
               ${RELENG_CONTROL}/runAntRunner.sh process-artifacts.xml -DrepoDirLocation="${repoDirLocation}" 
        else 
               echo "WARNING: expected code repo directory does not exist: $repoDirLocation";
@@ -161,11 +170,12 @@ FROMDIR=${mostRecentDir}/${dropDirName}
        repoDirLocation=$FROMDIR/repositoryunittests
        if [[ -d "${repoDirLocation}" ]] 
        then
+              echo "INFO: calling processing artifacts in test repo: $repoDirLocation";
               ${RELENG_CONTROL}/runAntRunner.sh process-artifacts.xml -DrepoDirLocation="${repoDirLocation}"
        else 
-              echo "WARNING: expected code repo directory does not exist: $repoDirLocation";
+              echo "WARNING: expected test repo directory does not exist: $repoDirLocation";
        fi 
-
+fi 
 
 if [ "patches" == $distribution ] 
 then