diff --git a/publish.py b/publish.py
index db224b0b2..37e1b9d44 100644
--- a/publish.py
+++ b/publish.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #! /usr/bin/env python3
 import argparse
-from pathlib import Path
+from pathlib import Path, PurePath
 import re
 
 # format is {crate : path}
@@ -20,11 +20,10 @@ CRATES = {
 VERSIONS = {}
 
 class PatchInfo:
-    def __init__(self, dirpath, cratename):
-        filename = dirpath + "/Cargo.toml"
+    def __init__(self, filename, cratename=None):
         self.filepath = Path(filename)
         if not self.filepath.is_file():
-            print("Bad crate path: {}".format(dirpath))
+            print("Bad crate path: {}".format(filename))
         self.cratename = cratename
 
     def get_version(self):
@@ -42,15 +41,15 @@ class PatchInfo:
                 elif in_package:
                     if line.strip().startswith('version'):
                         version = line.split('=')[1].replace('"', '').strip()
-                        VERSIONS[self.cratename] = version
                     if line.strip().startswith('name'):
                         name = line.split('=')[1].replace('"', '').strip()
-                        if self.cratename == name:
+                        if name in CRATES:
                             name_check = True
-            if not name_check:
-                return False
-            else:
-                return True
+            if name_check:
+                assert(version is not None, "Target name found but no version was extracted!")
+                VERSIONS[name] = version
+
+            return name_check
 
     # assumes that VERSIONS has been initialized.
     def increment_versions(self):
@@ -73,13 +72,21 @@ class PatchInfo:
                     else:
                         in_dependencies = False
                     file.write(line)
-                    continue
+                elif line.strip().startswith('#'): # skip comments
+                    file.write(line)
                 elif in_package:
-                    # increment my own version
-                    if line.strip().startswith('version'):
-                        file.write('version = "{}"\n'.format(bump_version(VERSIONS[self.cratename])))
+                    # increment my own version, if I'm in the listed crates
+                    if self.cratename is not None:
+                        if line.strip().startswith('version'):
+                            file.write('version = "{}"\n'.format(bump_version(VERSIONS[self.cratename])))
+                        else:
+                            file.write(line)
                     else:
                         file.write(line)
+
+                    if line.strip().startswith('name'):
+                        this_crate = line.split('=')[1].replace('"', '').strip()
+                        print("Patching {}...".format(this_crate))
                 elif in_dependencies:
                     # now increment dependency versions
 
@@ -91,7 +98,7 @@ class PatchInfo:
                             # we have to rewrite this semi-parser to be smarter about looking inside the curly braces only,
                             # instead of just stupidly splitting on = and ,
                             print("Warning: crate name has the word 'package' in it, and we don't parse this correctly!")
-                            print("Searching in {}, found {}".format(self.cratename, semiparse[0]))
+                            print("Searching in {}, found {}".format(this_crate, semiparse[0]))
                         else:
                             # extract the first index where 'package' is found
                             index = [idx for idx, s in enumerate(semiparse) if 'package' in s][0]
@@ -101,12 +108,12 @@ class PatchInfo:
                         depcrate = line.strip().split('=')[0].strip()
                         # print("simple package name: {}".format(depcrate))
 
-                    # print("{}:{}".format(self.cratename, depcrate))
+                    # print("{}:{}".format(this_crate, depcrate))
                     if depcrate in VERSIONS:
                         oldver = VERSIONS[depcrate]
                         (newline, numsubs) = re.subn(oldver, bump_version(oldver), line)
-                        if numsubs != 1:
-                            print("Warning! Version substitution failed for {}:{} in crate {}".format(depcrate, oldver, self.cratename))
+                        if numsubs != 1 and not "\"*\"" in newline:
+                            print("Warning! Version substitution failed for {}:{} in crate {} ({})".format(depcrate, oldver, this_crate, numsubs))
 
                         # print("orig: {}\nnew: {}".format(line, newline))
                         file.write(newline)
@@ -136,14 +143,36 @@ def main():
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
     if args.bump_versions:
+        cargo_toml_paths = []
+        for path in Path('.').rglob('Cargo.toml'):
+            if 'target' not in str(path):
+                not_core_path = True
+                for editpath in CRATES.values():
+                    if editpath in str(Path(path)).replace('\\', '/'): # fix windows paths
+                        not_core_path = False
+                if not_core_path:
+                    cargo_toml_paths += [path]
+
+        #import pprint
+        #pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent=2)
+        #pp.pprint(cargo_toml_paths)
+
         patches = []
+        # extract the versions of crates to patch
         for (crate, path) in CRATES.items():
-            patchinfo = PatchInfo(path, crate)
+            #print("extracting {}".format(path))
+            patchinfo = PatchInfo(path + '/Cargo.toml', crate)
             if not patchinfo.get_version():
                 print("Couldn't extract version info from {} crate".format(crate))
                 exit(1)
             patches += [patchinfo]
 
+        # now extract all the *other* crates
+        for path in cargo_toml_paths:
+            #print("{}".format(str(path)))
+            patchinfo = PatchInfo(path)
+            patches += [patchinfo]
+
         print(VERSIONS)
         for (name, ver) in VERSIONS.items():
             print("{}: {} -> {}".format(name, ver, bump_version(ver)))