diff --git a/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-download-file b/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-download-file
index 450b8843593..24750aa5e8f 100755
--- a/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-download-file
+++ b/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-download-file
@@ -1,5 +1,22 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
+# USAGE:
+#
+#     sage-download-file --print-fastest-mirror
+#
+# Print out the fastest mirror. All further arguments are ignored in
+# that case.
+#
+#     sage-download-file [--quiet] url-or-tarball [destination]
+#
+# The single mandatory argument can be a http:// url or a tarball
+# filename. In the latter case, the tarball is downloaded from the
+# mirror network and its checksum is verified.
+#
+# If the destination is not specified:
+# * a url will be downloaded and the content written to stdout
+# * a tarball will be saved under {SAGE_DISTFILES}
+
 try:
     import sage_bootstrap
 except ImportError:
diff --git a/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-package b/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-package
index 648a34fbbfb..a8d21612366 100755
--- a/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-package
+++ b/src/sage_bootstrap/bin/sage-package
@@ -1,5 +1,36 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
+# Script to manage third-party tarballs.
+#
+# Usage:
+#
+# * Print the configuration
+#
+#   $ sage-package config
+#   Configuration:
+#     * log = info
+#     * interactive = True
+#
+# * Print a list of all available packages
+#
+#   $ sage-package list | sort
+#   4ti2
+#   arb
+#   atlas
+#   autotools
+#   [...]
+#   zn_poly
+#
+# * Find the package name given a tarball filename
+#
+#   $ sage-package name pari-2.8-1564-gdeac36e.tar.gz
+#   pari
+#
+# * Find the tarball filename given a package name
+#
+#   $ sage-package tarball pari
+#   pari-2.8-1564-gdeac36e.tar.gz
+
 try:
     import sage_bootstrap
 except ImportError: