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+
+			  Welcome to Ledger
+
+		 the command-line accounting program
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+Ledger is an accounting program which is invoked from the command-line
+using a textual ledger file.  To start using Ledger, you will need to
+create such a file containing your financial transactions.  A sample
+has been provided in the file "sample.dat".  See the documentation
+(ledger.pdf, or ledger.info) for full documentation on creating a
+ledger file and using Ledger to generate reports.
+
+Once you have such a file -- you might call it "ledger.dat" -- you can
+start looking at balances and account registers using commands like
+the following:
+
+  ledger -f ledger.dat balance assets:checking
+  ledger -f ledger.dat register expenses:food
+
+This assumes, of course, that like the sample file you use account
+names such as "Assets:Checking" and "Expenses:Food".  If you use other
+account names, you will need to vary the reporting commands you use
+accordingly.
+
+
+Building
+========
+
+To build Ledger, you will need a fairly modern C++ compiler (gcc 2.95
+will not work), and at least these two libraries installed:
+
+    gmp        GNU multi-precision library
+    pcre       Perl regular expression library
+
+(On some GNU/Linux systems, the packages you need to install are
+called "gmp-dev" and "pcre-dev").
+
+If you wish to read Gnucash data files, you will also need two XML
+libraries, which may or may not be available in a single package (it
+depends on your distribution):
+
+    libexpat, or libxmlparse and libxmltok
+
+Once you have determined where the headers and libraries for the above
+packages are installed, run the script "configure", passing those
+paths.  If you installed everything under /usr/local, you can probably
+just type "./configure".  Otherwise, do this:
+
+    ./configure CPPFLAGS=-I<INCLUDE-PATH>  LDFLAGS=-L<LIBRARY-PATH>
+
+If you need to specify multiple include or library paths, then do
+this:
+
+    ./configure CPPFLAGS="-I<PATH1> -I<PATH2>"  LDFLAGS="-L<PATH1> -L<PATH2>"
+
+Once configure is done running, just type:
+
+    make install
+
+
+Mailing List and IRC
+====================
+
+If you need help on how to use Ledger, or run into problems, you can
+join the Ledger mailing list at the following Web address:
+
+    https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ledger-discuss
+
+You can also find help at the #ledger channel on the IRC server
+irc.freenode.net.