diff --git a/Makesurefile b/Makesurefile
index 3086070..ea177b7 100644
--- a/Makesurefile
+++ b/Makesurefile
@@ -370,14 +370,23 @@ in_begin && $1 ~ /^split/ { next }
 
 @goal gh_release
 @doc 'publish Github release (draft)'
-  releaseTag="v$NEXT_VERSION"
-  echo
-  echo "Will publish a draft release for $releaseTag ..."
-  echo
+
   fail () {
     echo >&2 "$@"
     exit 1
   }
+
+  prodVersion="$(./makesure -v)"
+  if [[ "$prodVersion" != "$NEXT_VERSION" ]]
+  then
+    fail "$prodVersion in ./makesure, must be $NEXT_VERSION. Please run './makesure release' and commit first."
+  fi
+
+  releaseTag="v$NEXT_VERSION"
+  echo
+  echo "Will publish a draft release for $releaseTag ..."
+  echo
+
   milestoneId=$(gh api -X GET "repos/xonixx/makesure/milestones" --jq '.[] | select(.title=="'$NEXT_VERSION'").number')
   if [[ -z $milestoneId ]]
   then
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 07b95b4..87548ad 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ By default, all scripts inside goals are executed with `bash`. If you want to us
 
 ```
 $ ./makesure -h
-makesure ver. 0.9.16
+makesure ver. 0.9.17
 Usage: makesure [options...] [-f buildfile] [goals...]
  -f,--file buildfile
                  set buildfile to use (default Makesurefile)
diff --git a/makesure b/makesure
index 250cd5f..9fa23e5 100755
--- a/makesure
+++ b/makesure
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 if command -v gawk >/dev/null;then makesure_awk='gawk -ltime -v Gawk=1';makesure_pre='';else makesure_awk=awk;makesure_pre='function gettimeofday(){}';fi
-exec $makesure_awk -v "Version=0.9.16" -v "Prog=$0" "$makesure_pre"'
+exec $makesure_awk -v "Version=0.9.17" -v "Prog=$0" "$makesure_pre"'
 BEGIN {
   Shell = "bash"
   SupportedShells["bash"]
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ function handleOptions(   i) {
   }
 }
 function handleDefine() {
-  checkPreludeOnly()
+  started("define")
   $1 = ""
   handleDefineLine($0)
 }
@@ -134,12 +134,10 @@ function handleShell() {
   if (!(Shell in SupportedShells))
     addError("Shell '\''" Shell "'\'' is not supported")
 }
-function adjustOptions() {
-  if ("silent" in Options)
-    delete Options["timing"]
+function timingOn() {
+  return "timing" in Options && !("silent" in Options)
 }
 function started(mode) {
-  if (isPrelude()) adjustOptions()
   Mode = mode
 }
 function handleLib(   libName) {
@@ -326,7 +324,7 @@ body,goalBody,goalBodies,resolvedGoals,exitCode, t0,t1,t2, goalTimed, list) {
         print quote2(goalName)
     }
   } else {
-    if ("timing" in Options)
+    if (timingOn())
       t0 = currentTimeMillis()
     addLine(definesLine, MyDirScript)
     addLine(definesLine, DefinesCode)
@@ -362,7 +360,7 @@ body,goalBody,goalBodies,resolvedGoals,exitCode, t0,t1,t2, goalTimed, list) {
     } else {
       for (i = 0; i in resolvedGoals; i++) {
         goalName = resolvedGoals[i]
-        goalTimed = "timing" in Options && !reachedGoals[goalName] && !emptyGoals[goalName]
+        goalTimed = timingOn() && !reachedGoals[goalName] && !emptyGoals[goalName]
         if (goalTimed)
           t1 = t2 ? t2 : currentTimeMillis()
         if (!("silent" in Options))
@@ -377,7 +375,7 @@ body,goalBody,goalBodies,resolvedGoals,exitCode, t0,t1,t2, goalTimed, list) {
         if (exitCode != 0)
           break
       }
-      if ("timing" in Options)
+      if (timingOn())
         print "  total time " renderDuration((t2 ? t2 : currentTimeMillis()) - t0)
       if (exitCode != 0)
         realExit(exitCode)
@@ -398,6 +396,7 @@ function resolveGoalsToRun(result,   i, goalName, loop) {
     die("There is a loop in goal dependencies via " loop[1] " -> " loop[2])
   }
 }
+function isCodeAllowed() { return "goal"==Mode || "goal_glob"==Mode || "lib"==Mode }
 function isPrelude() { return "prelude"==Mode }
 function checkPreludeOnly() { if (!isPrelude()) addError("Only use " $1 " in prelude") }
 function checkGoalOnly() { if ("goal" != Mode && "goal_glob" != Mode) addError("Only use " $1 " in @goal") }
@@ -434,9 +433,9 @@ function getMyDir(makesurefilePath) {
   return executeGetLine("cd \"$(dirname " quoteArg(makesurefilePath) ")\";pwd")
 }
 function handleCodeLine(line) {
-  if (isPrelude() && line !~ /^[ \t]*#/ && trim(line) != "") {
+  if (!isCodeAllowed() && line !~ /^[ \t]*#/ && trim(line) != "") {
     if (!ShellInPreludeErrorShown++)
-      addError("Shell code is not allowed in prelude area")
+      addError("Shell code is not allowed outside goals/libs")
   } else
     addCodeLine(line)
 }
diff --git a/makesure_candidate b/makesure_candidate
index 9027a6e..9fa23e5 100755
--- a/makesure_candidate
+++ b/makesure_candidate
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 if command -v gawk >/dev/null;then makesure_awk='gawk -ltime -v Gawk=1';makesure_pre='';else makesure_awk=awk;makesure_pre='function gettimeofday(){}';fi
-exec $makesure_awk -v "Version=0.9.16" -v "Prog=$0" "$makesure_pre"'
+exec $makesure_awk -v "Version=0.9.17" -v "Prog=$0" "$makesure_pre"'
 BEGIN {
   Shell = "bash"
   SupportedShells["bash"]