diff --git a/ci/extract_image_info.sh b/ci/extract_image_info.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..c26a78c6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/extract_image_info.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,312 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# this script can be invoked as follows:
+#       export TARGET=aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
+#       docker run -e TARGET ghcr.io/cross-rs/"$TARGET":main bash -c "`cat extract_target_info.sh`"
+#
+# the output will be similar to the following:
+#       | `aarch64-unknown-linux-musl`         | 1.2.0  | 9.2.0   | ✓   | 5.1.0 |
+#
+# in short, it recreates the table except for the test section in README.md.
+
+set -eo pipefail
+
+# shellcheck disable=SC2153
+target="${TARGET}"
+arch="${target//-*/}"
+
+extract_regex_version() {
+    # executing shared libraries outputs to stderr, rest to stdout
+    version="$($1 --version 2>&1)"
+    if [[ "${version}" =~ $2 ]]; then
+        echo "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+    else
+        echo "Unable to match $3 version info for ${target}." 1>&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
+}
+
+max_glibc_version() {
+    # glibc versions have the following format:
+    #   `libc-$major-$minor.so.$abi`, where the `.$abi` may be optional.
+    # shellcheck disable=SC2207
+    local -a paths=( $(ls "${1}"/libc-[0-9]*.[0-9]*.so*) )
+    local major=0
+    local minor=0
+    local version
+    local x
+    local y
+    local is_larger
+
+    for i in "${!paths[@]}"; do
+        file=$(basename "${paths[$i]}")
+        version="${file//libc-/}"
+        x=$(echo "${version}" | cut -d '.' -f 1)
+        y=$(echo "${version}" | cut -d '.' -f 2)
+        is_larger=
+
+        if [ "${x}" -gt "${major}" ]; then
+            is_larger=1
+        elif [ "${x}" -eq "${major}" ] && [ "${y}" -gt "${minor}" ]; then
+            is_larger=1
+        fi
+
+        if [ -n "${is_larger}" ]; then
+            major="${x}"
+            minor="${y}"
+        fi
+    done
+
+    echo "${major}.${minor}"
+}
+
+# output variables
+libc=
+cc=
+cxx=
+qemu=
+
+# select toolchain information
+compiler_suffix="${target//-/_}"
+cc_var="CC_${compiler_suffix}"
+cxx_var="CXX_${compiler_suffix}"
+cc_regex=
+case "${target}" in
+    *-*-android*)
+        cc_regex=".* clang version ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+) .*"
+        ;;
+    *-*-*-musl*)
+        cc_regex=".*gcc \(GCC\) ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+        ;;
+    *-*-linux-gnu*)
+        cc_regex=".*gcc \(.*\) ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+        ;;
+    *-*-windows-gnu*)
+        # MinGW only reports major/minor versions, and can
+        # have a -posix or -win32 suffix, eg: 7.5-posix
+        cc_regex=".*gcc.* \(GCC\) ([0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+        ;;
+    *-*-freebsd)
+        cc_regex=".*gcc \(GCC\) ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+        ;;
+    *-*-netbsd)
+        cc_regex=".*gcc \(.*\) ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+        ;;
+    *-none-*)
+        cc_regex=".*gcc \(.*\) ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+        ;;
+    *)
+        echo "TODO: Currently unsupported"  1>&2
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+esac
+
+# select qemu arch
+qarch="${arch}"
+case "${arch}" in
+    arm*)
+        qarch="arm"
+        ;;
+    i*86)
+        qarch="i386"
+        ;;
+    powerpc)
+        qarch="ppc"
+        ;;
+    powerpc64)
+        qarch="ppc64"
+        ;;
+    powerpc64le)
+        if [ "${CROSS_RUNNER}" = "qemu-user" ]; then
+            qarch="ppc64le"
+        else
+            qarch="ppc64"
+        fi
+        ;;
+    riscv64*)
+        qarch="riscv64"
+        ;;
+esac
+qemu_regex="qemu-${qarch} version ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+
+# evaluate our toolchain info
+cc_bin=
+cxx_bin=
+case "${target}" in
+    i*86-unknown-linux-gnu | x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
+        cc_bin="gcc"
+        cxx_bin="g++"
+        ;;
+    thumb*-none-eabi* | arm*-none-eabi*)
+        # the ARM/THUMB targets don't have a CC_${compiler_suffix}
+        cc_bin=arm-none-eabi-gcc
+        cxx_bin=arm-none-eabi-g++
+        ;;
+    *)
+        cc_bin="${!cc_var}"
+        cxx_bin="${!cxx_var}"
+        ;;
+
+esac
+cc=$(extract_regex_version "${cc_bin}" "${cc_regex}" compiler)
+if command -v "${cxx_bin}" &>/dev/null; then
+    # test we can compile a c++ program that requires the c++ stdlib
+    cat <<EOT >> main.cc
+#include <iostream>
+int main() {
+    std::cout << "Testing this" << std::endl;
+}
+EOT
+    cxx_flags=()
+    if [[ "${target}" == *-none-* ]]; then
+        cxx_flags=("${cxx_flags[@]}" "-nostartfiles")
+    fi
+    if "${cxx_bin}" "${cxx_flags[@]}" main.cc >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+        cxx=1
+    fi
+fi
+
+case "${target}" in
+    *-*-android*)
+        libc="${cc}"
+        ;;
+    *-*-*-musl*)
+        toolchain_prefix="${!cc_var//-gcc/}"
+        libdir="/usr/local/${toolchain_prefix}/lib"
+        libc_regex=".*Version ([0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*"
+        if [[ "${arch}" = i[3-7]86 ]] || [ "${arch}" == x86_64 ]; then
+            libc_cmd="${libdir}/libc.so"
+        else
+            libc_cmd="qemu-${qarch} ${libdir}/libc.so"
+            if ! command -v "qemu-${qarch}" &>/dev/null; then
+                echo "Unable to get qemu version for ${target}: qemu not found." 1>&2
+                exit 1
+            fi
+        fi
+        libc=$(extract_regex_version "${libc_cmd}" "${libc_regex}" libc)
+        ;;
+    arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf)
+        # this is for crosstool-ng-based images with glibc
+        libdir="/x-tools/${target}/${target}/sysroot/lib/"
+        libc=$(max_glibc_version "${libdir}")
+        ;;
+    i*86-unknown-linux-gnu)
+        libdir="/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/"
+        libc=$(max_glibc_version "${libdir}")
+        ;;
+    x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
+        libdir="/lib64/"
+        libc=$(max_glibc_version "${libdir}")
+        ;;
+    *-*-linux-gnu*)
+        toolchain_prefix="${!cc_var//-gcc/}"
+        libdir="/usr/${toolchain_prefix}/lib"
+        libc=$(max_glibc_version "${libdir}")
+        ;;
+    *-*-windows-gnu)
+        # no libc, intentionally omitted.
+        ;;
+    *-*-freebsd)
+        # we write the FreeBSD version to /opt/freebsd-version
+        # the symbol versioning can be found here:
+        #   https://wiki.freebsd.org/SymbolVersioning
+        version=$(cat /opt/freebsd-version)
+        if [[ "${version}" =~ ([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)" ("[A-Za-z]+")" ]]; then
+            major_version="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+            minor_version="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
+            case "${major_version}" in
+                7)
+                    libc="1.0"
+                    ;;
+                8)
+                    libc="1.1"
+                    ;;
+                9)
+                    libc="1.2"
+                    ;;
+                10)
+                    libc="1.3"
+                    ;;
+                11)
+                    libc="1.4"
+                    ;;
+                12)
+                    libc="1.5"
+                    ;;
+                13)
+                    libc="1.6"
+                    ;;
+                *)
+                    echo "Invalid FreeBSD version, got ${major_version}.${minor_version}." 1>&2
+                    exit 1
+                    ;;
+            esac
+        else
+            echo "Unable to get libc version for ${target}: invalid FreeBSD release found." 1>&2
+            exit 1
+        fi
+        ;;
+    *-*-netbsd)
+        # We can read the NetBSD version from the libc symbols.
+        # The output follows:
+        #  NetBSD                0x00000004      IDENT 902000000 (9.2.0)
+        libdir="/usr/local/${target}/lib"
+        version=$(readelf -a "${libdir}"/libc.so | grep NetBSD | head -n 1)
+        if [[ "${version}" =~ .+" ("([0-9]+)"."([0-9]+)"."([0-9]+)")" ]]; then
+            major_version="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+            minor_version="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
+            patch_version="${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
+            libc="${major_version}.${minor_version}.${patch_version}"
+        else
+            echo "Unable to get libc version for ${target}: invalid NetBSD release found." 1>&2
+            exit 1
+        fi
+        ;;
+    thumb*-none-eabi* | arm*-none-eabi*)
+        # newlib kinda sucks. just query for the install package
+        pkg=$(dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall | grep newlib | head -n 1)
+        pkg=$(echo "${pkg}" | cut -f 1)
+        version=$(dpkg-query --showformat='${Version}' --show "${pkg}")
+        if [[ "${version}" =~ ([0-9]+)"."([0-9]+)"."([0-9]+)"+".* ]]; then
+            major_version="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+            minor_version="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
+            patch_version="${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
+            libc="${major_version}.${minor_version}.${patch_version}"
+        else
+            echo "Unable to get libc version for ${target}: invalid NetBSD release found." 1>&2
+            exit 1
+        fi
+        ;;
+    *)
+        echo "TODO: Currently unsupported" 1>&2
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+esac
+
+if command -v "qemu-${qarch}" &>/dev/null; then
+    qemu=$(extract_regex_version "qemu-${qarch}" "${qemu_regex}" qemu)
+fi
+
+# format our output
+printf "| %-36s |" "\`${target}\`"
+if [ "$libc" != "" ]; then
+    printf " %-6s |" "${libc}"
+else
+    printf " N/A    |"
+fi
+if [ "$cc" != "" ]; then
+    printf " %-7s |" "${cc}"
+else
+    printf " N/A     |"
+fi
+if [ "$cxx" != "" ]; then
+    printf " ✓   |"
+else
+    printf "     |"
+fi
+if [ "$qemu" != "" ]; then
+    printf " %-5s |" "${qemu}"
+else
+    printf " N/A   |"
+fi
+printf "\n"
diff --git a/ci/extract_target_info.sh b/ci/extract_target_info.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..4d273b774
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/extract_target_info.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# this script can be customized with the following env vars:
+#       CROSS_IMAGE: defaults to `ghcr.io/cross-rs`
+#       CROSS_CONTAINER_ENGINE: defaults to `docker` or `podman`
+#       CROSS_IMAGE_VERSION: defaults to `main`.
+#
+# if no arguments are provided, this script will process all
+# images. you can extract target info for specific targets
+# by providing them as arguments after the script, for example,
+# `./extract_target_info.sh i686-linux-android`.
+#
+# the output will be similar to the following:
+#       | `aarch64-unknown-linux-musl`         | 1.2.0  | 9.2.0   | ✓   | 5.1.0 |
+#       | `i686-linux-android`                 | 9.0.8  | 9.0.8   | ✓   | 5.1.0 |
+#       | `i686-unknown-linux-musl`            | 1.2.0  | 9.2.0   | ✓   | N/A   |
+#       ...
+#
+# in short, it recreates the table except for the test section in README.md.
+
+# shellcheck disable=SC2207
+
+set -eo pipefail
+
+scriptdir=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")
+scriptdir=$(realpath "${scriptdir}")
+project_dir=$(dirname "${scriptdir}")
+
+if [[ -z "$CROSS_IMAGE" ]]; then
+    CROSS_IMAGE="ghcr.io/cross-rs"
+fi
+if [[ -z "$CROSS_CONTAINER_ENGINE" ]]; then
+    if command -v "docker" &>/dev/null; then
+        CROSS_CONTAINER_ENGINE="docker"
+    elif command -v "podman" &>/dev/null; then
+        CROSS_CONTAINER_ENGINE="podman"
+    else
+        echo "Unable to find suitable container engine." 1>&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
+fi
+if [[ -z "$CROSS_IMAGE_VERSION" ]]; then
+    CROSS_IMAGE_VERSION="main"
+fi
+
+pull() {
+    "${CROSS_CONTAINER_ENGINE}" pull "${1}"
+}
+
+run() {
+    TARGET="${1}" "${CROSS_CONTAINER_ENGINE}" run --rm -e TARGET \
+        -v "${scriptdir}:/ci:ro" "${2}" \
+        bash -c "/ci/extract_image_info.sh"
+}
+
+# parse our CI list, so updating our CI automatically updates our target list.
+if [[ $# -eq "0" ]]; then
+    ci="${project_dir}"/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+    matrix=$(yq '."jobs"."generate-matrix"."steps".0."env"."matrix"' "${ci}")
+    targets=($(yq '.[]."target"' <<< "${matrix}"))
+else
+    targets=("${@}")
+fi
+for target in "${targets[@]}"; do
+    # can't do MSVC, Darwin, or iOS images.
+    case "${target}" in
+        *-msvc | *-darwin | *-apple-ios)
+            continue
+            ;;
+    esac
+
+    image="${CROSS_IMAGE}"/"${target}":"${CROSS_IMAGE_VERSION}"
+    if [[ -z "$DEBUG" ]]; then
+        pull "${image}" >/dev/null 2>&1
+        run "${target}" "${image}" 2>/dev/null
+    else
+        pull "${image}"
+        run "${target}" "${image}"
+    fi
+done