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authorCharles Merriam <charles.merriam@gmail.com>2014-03-26 22:36:17 -0700
committerCharles Merriam <charles.merriam@gmail.com>2014-03-26 22:36:17 -0700
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Update README to reference README.md
This older doc/README file is pure text and provides incomplete information compared to the root's README.md markdown file. I copied over some introductory verbiage and added cross references to that file.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
-rw-r--r--doc/README28
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/doc/README b/doc/README
index 190436a2..6e1ee033 100644
--- a/doc/README
+++ b/doc/README
@@ -1,17 +1,20 @@
-
Welcome to Ledger
- the command-line accounting program
+ 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 postings. 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.
+Ledger is a powerful, double-entry accounting system that is accessed from the
+UNIX command-line. This may put off some users, since there is no flashy UI,
+but for those who want unparalleled reporting access to their data there are
+few alternatives.
+
+To start using Ledger, you will need to create such a
+file containing your financial transactions. A sample has been provided in the
+file "test/input/sample.dat". See the Ledger 3 Manual (ledger.pdf, ledger.info,
+or http://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.pdf) 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:
@@ -23,6 +26,10 @@ 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.
+You can find more information on getting starting, building from source, and
+getting help from the ./README.md file in your ledger source repository or
+online at https://github.com/ledger/ledger.
+
Building
========
@@ -33,8 +40,9 @@ 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").
+On some GNU/Linux systems, the packages you need to install are called
+"gmp-dev" and "pcre-dev". See the ./README.md in the source repository for
+a more complete list of dependencies.
Once you have determined where the headers and libraries for the above
packages are installed, run the script "configure", passing those paths. If