1 files changed, 78 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e76d7c73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+The EPP Build
+=============
+
+The [Eclipse Packaging Project (EPP)](http://www.eclipse.org/epp/) provides 
+the download packages based on the content of the yearly Simultaneous Release. 
+The download packages are provided from 
+[www.eclipse.org/downloads/](http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/).
+
+Build a Package Locally
+-----------------------
+
+It's *easy* to run the build locally! All you need is Maven and then you need 
+to tell Maven which package(s) to build via profile. As an example, the following 
+command from the root of the Git repository builds the RCP/RAP package against 
+the Simultaneous Release staging p2 repository:
+
+    mvn clean verify -Pepp.package.rcp
+
+This build creates output in two places:
+
+1. tar.gz/zip archives with the packages in `archive/` and
+2. a p2 repository with the EPP artifacts in `archive/repository/`.
+
+Windows users
+------------- 
+
+If you are running the build on Windows, the last build step will currently fail. 
+This failure can be circumvented by skipping the last step which aggregates the 
+filtered EPP artifacts from the packages into a new p2 repository. For further 
+details see [bug 426416](https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=426416).
+At the moment it is advised to run the build command on Windows with `package` 
+only:
+
+    mvn clean package -Pepp.package.rcp
+
+In addition to that it is not possible to create zip and tar.gz archives on 
+Windows due to missing Bash scripting capabilities. On Windows, the output of the
+build is the `eclipse` directory that contains the usual content from the zip
+archive. This directory can be found below (e.g. RCP package) 
+`packages/org.eclipse.epp.package.rcp.product/target/products/`.
+
+Available Profiles
+------------------
+
+Each package uses its own profile:
+
+- epp.package.automotive
+- epp.package.cpp
+- epp.package.dsl
+- epp.package.java
+- epp.package.jee
+- epp.package.modeling
+- epp.package.parallel
+- epp.package.php
+- epp.package.rcp
+- epp.package.reporting
+- epp.package.scout
+- epp.package.standard
+- epp.package.testing
+
+With the signing profile enabled, the build artifacts (bundles, features) and the
+Windows and Mac OSX executables are signed. This is done by using the Eclipse Foundation 
+internal signing service and can be activated only if the build is running there.
+
+- eclipse-sign
+
+Additional Configuration Possibilities
+--------------------------------------
+
+By default, the EPP build uses the content of the Eclipse Simultaneous Release *Staging*
+repository at <http://download.eclipse.org/releases/staging/> as input. Sometimes it is
+desired to build against another release (e.g. a different milestone), or against a local
+mirror of this repository. This can be achieved by setting the Java property
+`eclipse.simultaneous.release.repository`to another URL. As an example, by adding the
+following argument to the Maven command line, the EPP build will read its input from the
+composite Eclipse Luna repository:
+
+    -Declipse.simultaneous.release.repository="http://download.eclipse.org/releases/luna"