Improved README

README.md

@@ -1,45 +1,121 @@
-kiwix-tools
+Kiwix tools
 ===========
 
-kiwix-tools contains a set of tools to interact with kiwix and zim files.
+The Kiwix tools gathers kiwix command line tools.
 
+Disclaimer
+----------
 
+This document assumes you have a little knowledge about software
+compilation. If you experience difficulties with the dependencies or
+with the Kiwix libary compilation itself, we recommend to have a look
+to [kiwix-build](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-build).
 
-Build kiwix-tools
------------------
+Preamble
+--------
 
+Although the Kiwix tools can be compiled/cross-compiled on/for many
+sytems, the following documentation explains how to do it on POSIX
+ones. It is primarly though for GNU/Linux systems and has been tested
+on recent releases of Ubuntu and Fedora.
 
-Most of the compilation steps (including dependencies download and compilation)
-are handle by [kiwix-build](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-build) script.
-If you don't have any special need, we recommand you to use kiwix-build
-instead of doing all the steps yourself.
+Dependencies
+------------
 
-Dependencies:
+The Kiwix tools rely on a few third parts software libraries. They
+are prerequisites to the Kiwix library compilation. Following
+libraries need to be available:
 
-You'll need the following dependencies to build libkiwix:
+* Kiwix lib ....................... https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-lib
+(no package for now)
+* Libmicrohttpd .......... https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/
+(package libmicrohttpd-dev on Ubuntu)
+(package libctpp2-dev on Ubuntu)
+* Zlib .......................................... http://www.zlib.net/
+(package zlib1g-dev on Ubuntu)
 
-* [kiwix-lib](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-lib) (and its dependencies)
-* [libmicrohttpd](http://www.openzim.org/wiki/Zimlib)
+These dependencies may or may not be packaged by your operating
+system. They may also be packaged but only in an older version. They
+may be also packaged but without providing a static version. The
+compilation script will tell you if one of them is missing or too old.
+In the worse case, you will have to download and compile bleeding edge
+version by hand.
 
-As we use meson to build kiwix-tools, you will need the common meson tools:
-* [meson](http://mesonbuild.com/) >= 0.34
-* ninja
-* pkg-config
+If you want to install these dependencies locally, then use the
+kiwix-tools directory as install prefix.
 
-To build:
+If you want to compile Kiwix tools statically, the dependencies should
+be compile statically (provide a lib...a library), for example by
+using "--enable-static" with "./configure".
 
+If you compile manually Libmicrohttpd, you might need to compile it
+without GNU TLS, a bug here will empeach further compilation of Kiwix
+tools otherwise.
+
+Environnement
+-------------
+
+The Kiwix library builds using [Meson](http://mesonbuild.com/) version
+0.34 or higher. Meson relies itself on Ninja, pkg-config and few other
+compilation tools.
+
+Install first the few common compilation tools:
+* Automake
+* Libtool
+* Virtualenv
+* Pkg-config
+
+Then install Meson itself:
 ```
-$ cd kiwix-lib
-$ meson . build
-$ cd build
-$ ninja
-$ ninja install
+virtualenv -p python3 ./ # Create virtualenv
+source bin/activate      # Activate the virtualenv
+pip install meson        # Install Meson
+hash -r                  # Refresh bash paths
 ```
 
-By default, it will compile dynamic linked binaries.
-If you want statically linked binaries, you can add `-Dstatic-linkage=true`
-option to the meson command.
-Be aware that you must have static library dependencies installed on your
-system.
+Finally download and build Ninja locally:
+```
+git clone git://github.com/ninja-build/ninja.git
+cd ninja
+git checkout release
+./configure.py --bootstrap
+mkdir ../bin                      
+cp ninja ../bin
+cd ..
+```
 
-Licensed as GPLv3 or later, see COPYING for more details.
+Compilation
+-----------
+
+Once all dependencies are installed, you can compile kiwix-lib with:
+```
+mkdir build
+meson . build
+cd build
+ninja
+```
+
+By default, it will compile dynamic linked libraries. If you want
+statically linked libraries, you can add `-Dstatic-linkage=true`
+option to the Meson command.
+
+Depending of you system, `ninja` may be called `ninja-build`.
+
+Installation
+------------
+
+If you want to install the Kiwix tools you just have compiled on your
+system, here we go:
+
+```
+ninja install
+cd ..
+```
+
+You might need to run the command as root, depending where you want to
+install the libraries.
+
+License
+-------
+
+GPLv3 or later, see COPYING for more details.