diff --git a/.github/workflows/appimage8.yml b/.github/workflows/appimage8.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b7f38cef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/appimage8.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+on:
+  push:
+    tags:
+      - "*"
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+name: CI-appimage8
+
+jobs:
+  build_appimage8:
+    name: Build AppImage EL8
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: write # action-gh-release
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 149 # enough to cover between tags
+
+      - name: Get the version
+        id: get_version
+        run: |
+          git show -s
+          version=$(cat VERSION) # 8.9.999
+          version_tstamp=$(git show -s "--format=%cs" | tr -d '-') # YYYYMMDD
+          version_hash=$(git show -s "--format=%h") # abcdefg
+          version_num=$(ruby -e "print '$GITHUB_REF'.split('/')[2]") # legacy version method: master
+          echo "version=${version}"
+          echo "version_tstamp=${version_tstamp}"
+          echo "version_hash=${version_hash}"
+          echo "version_num=${version_num}"
+          VERSION_NUM="${version}~${version_tstamp}~${version_hash}"
+          echo "VERSION_NUM=${VERSION_NUM}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME=Magic-${VERSION_NUM}-x86_64-EL8.AppImage" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          # Is this GHA being run due to a push-on-tag ?  if so we make a GitHub release, otherwise we just publish artifact
+          github_tag=$(echo -n "$GITHUB_REF" | sed -e 's#refs/tags/##') # 8.9.999
+          echo "github_tag=$github_tag"
+          if echo -n "$GITHUB_REF" | egrep -q "^refs/tags/" # check prefix
+          then
+            if [ -n "$github_tag" ]
+            then
+              echo "MY_GITHUB_TAG=${github_tag}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+            fi
+          fi
+          # ubuntu-latest on GHA (now needs explicit dependencies for AppImageTool)
+          sudo apt-get install -y libfuse2 desktop-file-utils
+
+      - name: Build project
+        run: |
+          cd appimage/8
+          make
+
+          ln -v Magic-x86_64.AppImage "${MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME}"
+          ls -l *.AppImage
+          sha256sum *.AppImage
+          pwd
+
+      - name: Create RELEASE-NOTES.txt
+        run: |
+          cd appimage/8
+          # Find the last tag (that does not match the current GITHUB_REF)
+          echo GITHUB_REF=$GITHUB_REF
+          echo GITHUB_SHA=$GITHUB_SHA
+          git fetch --tags --no-progress --quiet # fetch-tags: true # did not work
+          git_describe=$(git describe $GITHUB_SHA | sed -e 's#-#+#')
+
+          # RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "### ${MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME} commit ${git_describe}" | sed -e 's#~#\\~#g' > RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "This release is based on EL8 (AlmaLinux8), the AppImage format is designed to run on a wide range of Linux distributions." >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "See documentation at https://github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/blob/${GITHUB_SHA:0:8}/appimage/8/README.md" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          length_info=$(stat "--format=%s bytes" "${MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME}")
+          sha256_info=$(sha256sum "${MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME}" | cut -d ' ' -f1)
+          echo "|   |   |" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "| :-------- | :------ |" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "| File Name | ${MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME} |" | sed -e 's#~#\\~#g' >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "| File Length | ${length_info} |" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "| File SHA256 | ${sha256_info} |" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          echo "" >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+
+          # RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+          git_previous_tag=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 ${GITHUB_SHA}~1)
+          if [ -n "${git_previous_tag}" ]
+          then
+              echo "### Change Log (since previous tag):" > RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+              echo "\`\`\`" >> RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+              git log --oneline --no-color --no-decorate "refs/tags/${git_previous_tag}..${GITHUB_REF}" >> RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+              echo "\`\`\`" >> RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+          else
+              echo "### Change Log (last commit only):" > RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+              echo "\`\`\`" >> RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+              git log --oneline -n1 --no-color --no-decorate "${GITHUB_REF}" >> RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+              echo "\`\`\`" >> RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+          fi
+          echo "" >> RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt
+
+          #echo "### Build Info:" > RELEASE-NOTES-BI.txt
+          # FIXME extract package version info and DSO symvers into RELEASE-NOTES.txt
+          #echo "" >> RELEASE-NOTES-BI.txt
+
+          cat RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt >> RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+          cat RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+
+          # RELEASE-NOTES-DOCS.txt
+          echo "See documentation at https://github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/blob/${GITHUB_SHA:0:8}/appimage/7/README.md" >> RELEASE-NOTES-DOCS.txt
+          echo "See documentation at https://github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/blob/${GITHUB_SHA:0:8}/appimage/8/README.md" >> RELEASE-NOTES-DOCS.txt
+          echo "See documentation at https://github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/blob/${GITHUB_SHA:0:8}/appimage/9/README.md" >> RELEASE-NOTES-DOCS.txt
+          echo "See documentation at https://github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/blob/${GITHUB_SHA:0:8}/appimage/10/README.md" >> RELEASE-NOTES-DOCS.txt
+
+          # RELEASE-NOTES-GH.txt (this is shared for all AppImage for one tag)
+          echo "### commit ${git_describe}" | sed -e 's#~#\\~#g' > RELEASE-NOTES-GH.txt
+          echo "" >> RELEASE-NOTES-GH.txt
+          cat RELEASE-NOTES-DOCS.txt >> RELEASE-NOTES-GH.txt
+          cat RELEASE-NOTES-CL.txt >> RELEASE-NOTES-GH.txt
+
+          # Show in action/artifact output
+          echo "## RELEASE NOTES" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          cat RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+
+      - name: Upload Release Asset
+        if: ${{ env.MY_GITHUB_TAG != '' }} # if: ${{ github.ref_type == 'tag' }}
+        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
+        with:
+          body_path: ${{ github.workspace }}/appimage/8/RELEASE-NOTES-GH.txt
+          files: |
+            ${{ github.workspace }}/appimage/8/${{env.MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME}}
+            ${{ github.workspace }}/appimage/8/RELEASE-NOTES-EL8.txt
+
+      - name: Upload Artifact
+        #if: ${{ env.MY_GITHUB_TAG == '' }} # commented out to always upload
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: ${{env.MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME}}
+          path: |
+            ${{ github.workspace }}/appimage/8/${{env.MAGIC_APPIMAGE_OUTPUT_FILENAME}}
diff --git a/appimage/8/Dockerfile b/appimage/8/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..339f2e1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appimage/8/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+FROM almalinux:8
+
+USER root
+
+# Build Dependencies (and dump version to logging)
+RUN dnf install -y python311 zlib-devel ncurses-devel readline-devel cairo-devel freeglut-devel \
+	mesa-libGLU-devel mesa-libGL-devel libX11-devel libstdc++-devel gcc gcc-c++ make git tcsh \
+    && echo "### rpm -qa:" \
+    && rpm -qa | sort \
+    && echo ""
+#RUN dnf group install -y "Development Tools"
+
+# Tcl/Tk
+WORKDIR /tcl
+RUN curl -L https://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl8.6.16-src.tar.gz | tar --strip-components=1 -xzC . \
+    && cd unix \
+    && ./configure --prefix=/prefix \
+    && make \
+    && make install
+
+WORKDIR /tk
+RUN curl -L https://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tk8.6.16-src.tar.gz | tar --strip-components=1 -xzC . \
+    && cd unix \
+    && ./configure --prefix=/prefix --with-tcl=/prefix/lib \
+    && make \
+    && make install
+
+WORKDIR /prefix/bin
+RUN cp ./wish8.6 ./wish
+RUN cp ./tclsh8.6 ./tclsh
+
+# Magic
+WORKDIR /magic
+COPY . .
+
+RUN ./configure \
+    --prefix=/prefix \
+    --with-tcl=/prefix/lib \
+    --with-tk=/prefix/lib \
+    && make clean \
+    && make database/database.h \
+    && make -j$(nproc) \
+    && make install
+
+# Produce summary of what was created and confirm their DSOs
+RUN echo "### filesystem:" \
+    find /prefix -printf "%y/%M/%m %i/%n %l %u/%U %g/%G %s/%b %T+/%T@\t%p\n"; \
+    ls -lR /prefix; \
+    find /prefix -type f -perm /111 -exec bash -c "echo \#\#\# {}; ldd -v {}" \; 2>/dev/null; \
+    for name in libgcc_s libstdc++ libpng liblzma libxml2 libz libcairo libGL libGLU; do \
+      find /lib64 /usr/lib64 -maxdepth 2 -name "*.so" -name "${name}*" -exec bash -c "echo \#\#\# {}; ldd -v {}" \; 2>/dev/null; \
+    done; \
+    echo "###"
+
+WORKDIR /
+RUN tar -czf /prefix.tar.gz -C ./prefix .
+
+CMD ["/bin/bash"]
diff --git a/appimage/8/Makefile b/appimage/8/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..acd66222
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appimage/8/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+MAGIC_SRC_ROOT = ../..
+RESOURCES := $(shell find ../rsc/ -type f)
+ARCH := $(shell uname -m)
+APPIMAGE = Magic-$(ARCH).AppImage
+VERSION_MAGIC := $(shell cat $(MAGIC_SRC_ROOT)/VERSION)
+VERSION_TSTAMP := $(shell git show -s "--format=%cs" | tr -d '-')
+VERSION_HASH := $(shell git show-ref --hash=7 remotes/origin/HEAD)
+VERSION_NUM ?= $(VERSION_MAGIC)~$(VERSION_TSTAMP)~$(VERSION_HASH)
+VERSION := $(VERSION_NUM)
+
+all: $(APPIMAGE)
+
+.PHONY: prefix/bin/magic
+prefix/bin/magic: Dockerfile Makefile
+	@echo "APPIMAGE=$(APPIMAGE)"
+	@echo "VERSION=$(VERSION)"
+	@echo "ARCH=$(ARCH)"
+	@echo "RESOURCES=$(RESOURCES)"
+	rm -rf prefix
+	docker build -t magic_build -f ./Dockerfile $(MAGIC_SRC_ROOT)
+	id=$$(docker create magic_build) ; \
+	docker cp $$id:/prefix ./prefix ; \
+	docker rm -v $$id
+	mkdir -p prefix/lib/tcl8.6.16
+	cp -r prefix/lib/tcl8.6 prefix/lib/tcl8.6.16/library
+
+appimagetool:
+	curl -L https://github.com/AppImage/appimagetool/releases/download/1.9.0/appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage > ./appimagetool
+	chmod +x ./appimagetool
+
+$(APPIMAGE): prefix/bin/magic appimagetool $(RESOURCES)
+	cp $(RESOURCES) ./prefix/
+	./appimagetool prefix
+
+PREFIX ?= /usr/local
+install:
+	install $(APPIMAGE) $(PREFIX)/bin/magic
+
+.PHONY: clean
+clean:
+	rm -f *.AppImage
+	rm -f prefix.tar.gz
+	rm -rf prefix
diff --git a/appimage/8/README.md b/appimage/8/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d8a2b7c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appimage/8/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+This is an AppImage that runs on all GNU/Linux platforms with:
+
+* FUSE
+    * This excludes non-privileged Docker containers unfortunately, unless pre-extracted.
+* GLIBC 2.28+
+* Cairo 1.15+
+
+This AppImage build is based on EL8 (via AlmaLinux 8)
+
+AlmaLinux 8 was first released on 20 March 2021, active support ends 31 May 2024,
+security support ends 31 May 2029 (please see AlmaLinux bulletins for
+up-to-date information).
+
+# Version Info
+
+See the AppImage main binary file naming, release tag information and AppInfo metadata
+for the exact magic version inside the archive.  When starting AppImage by default the
+Tcl console banner can also provide version information, also using the `version` Tcl
+command.
+
+* Based on AlmaLinux 8 (EL8)
+* Tcl/Tk 8.6.16
+* and Magic 8.x
+* all default modules enabled (including all Display drivers cairo/X11/OpenGL)
+
+# FAQ: How to use
+
+Download the *.AppImage file relevant to your platform and run:
+
+```
+chmod +x Magic-x86_64.AppImage
+./Magic-x86_64.AppImage
+```
+
+Example startup with command line options:
+
+```
+./Magic-x86_64.AppImage -d XR -T scmos
+```
+
+
+# Building Requirements
+
+* A reasonably recent GNU/Linux host
+* GNU make
+* Docker
+* Git
+* curl
+
+The final build is then packaged into an AppImage using AppImageTool on the host machine.
+
+# Build Instructions
+`make`
+
+# Installation Instructions
+`make install`
+
+# FAQ: Is my CPU supported ?
+
+Supports all x86_64 CPUs.  The Linux ABI in use is the original x86-64 ABI (v1).
+
+Use the command `/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 --help` to see which CPUs your
+Linux distribtion supports (and your CPU) look for the word "supported".
+
+# FAQ: The DSO versioning link dependencies?
+
+The information here provides an outline of what versions to expect from EL8
+of the major dependencies, to assist you with a compatibility check with your
+Linux distribution of choice.
+
+The actual versions in our public releases can differ slightly inline with
+the EL8 support compatibility and ABI versioning policies for the support
+lifecycle of the distribution.
+
+The most important items are the Direct Dependencies and the availabilty
+of a suitable graphics DSO as per your '-d' choice.
+
+Direct Runtime Dependencies (from /prefix/**):
+
+| DSO Filename           | DSO Symbol Version  | Related Packages     |
+| :--------------------- | :------------------ | :------------------- |
+| libc.so.6              | GLIBC_2.14          | glibc-2.28-251       |
+| libz.so.1              | ZLIB_1.2.2          | zlib-1.2.11-25       |
+
+Optional/Modular Runtime Dependencies (depending on graphics mode):
+
+| DSO Filename           | DSO Symbol Version  | Related Packages     |
+| :--------------------- | :------------------ | :------------------- |
+| libcairo.so.2          |                     |                      |
+| libcairo.so.2.11512.0  |                     | cairo-1.15.12-6      |
+| libGL.so.1             |                     | libglvnd-glx-1:1.3.4-2 |
+|                        |                     | mesa-libGL-23.1.4-4  |
+| libGLU.so.1            |                     | mesa-libGLU-9.0.0-15 |
+
+Transitive/Third-Party Runtime Dependencies (for information only):
+
+| DSO Filename           | DSO Symbol Version  | Related Packages     |
+| :--------------------- | :------------------ | :------------------- |
+| libc.so.6              | GLIBC_2.35          | glibc-2.28-251       |
+| libstdc++.so.6         | GLIBCXX_3.4         | gcc-c++-8.5.0        |
+| libstdc++.so.6         | CXXABI_1.3.9        | gcc-c++-8.5.0        |
+| libgcc_s.so.1          | GCC_4.2.0           | libgcc-8.5.0-26      |
+| libxml2.so.2           |                     | libxml2-2.9.7-19     |
+| libpng16.so.16         | PNG16_0             | libpng-2:1.6.34-5    |
+| liblzma.so.5           |                     | xz-libs-5.2.4-4      |
+| libz.so.1              | ZLIB_1.2.9          | zlib-1.2.11-25       |