add initial documentation

A README file is more suited to be read by humans, and the name has
evolved as a standard for initial documentation.

Trim COPYING down so that it contains only the software license, and
move the contributing part, which is only remotely related to the
license, into a single sub-section in the README. Also move the DCO
part into a single file to be referenced by the README.

Signed-off-by: Roland Hieber <rohieb@rohieb.name>

1 files changed, 86 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+microcom
+========
+
+microcom is a minimalistic terminal program for communicating with devices over
+a serial connection (e.g. embedded systems, switches, modems). It features
+connection via RS232 serial interfaces (including setting of transfer rates) as
+well as in "Telnet mode" as specified in [RFC 2217].
+
+[RFC 2217]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2217
+
+
+Installation
+------------
+
+microcom depends on the [readline] library.
+
+If you just cloned this repository, you also need to install [autoconf],
+[automake], and the [autoconf archive] first. Then change to the project's root
+directy and do:
+
+```
+autoreconf -i
+```
+
+If you extracted minicom from a release tarball, this previous step should not
+be needed.
+
+Now continue with building and installing minicom:
+
+```
+./configure
+make
+sudo make install
+```
+
+By default, minicom is installed into `/usr/local/bin/`. Use `./configure
+--prefix=YOURPATH` to change that, and see `./configure --help` for more
+options related to building and installation.
+
+[readline]: https://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html
+[autoconf]: https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/
+[automake]: https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/
+[autoconf archive]: https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf-archive/
+
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+The typical usage with TTY devices looks like this:
+
+```
+microcom --speed=115200 --port=/dev/ttyS0
+```
+
+To connect to remote serial ports via RFC 2217, use the ``--telnet`` option instead:
+
+```
+microcom --speed=115200 --telnet=somehost:port
+```
+
+For the full list of options, see `microcom --help`.
+
+During the connection, you can get to the microcom menu by pressing `Ctrl-\`.
+Various options are available there, like setting flow  control, RTS and DTR.
+See ``help`` for a full list.
+
+
+License and Contributing
+------------------------
+
+microcom is free software and distributable under the GNU General Public
+License, version 2. See the file `COPYING` in this repository for more
+information.
+
+Changes to microcom must be certified to be compatible with this license. For
+this purpose, we use the Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1; see the file
+`DCO` in this repository.  If you can certify that the DCO applies for your
+changes, add a line like the following:
+
+```
+Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
+```
+
+… containing your real name and e-mail address at the end of the patch
+description (Git can do this for you when you use `git commit -s`).
+Then send your patches to <oss-tools@pengutronix.de>.