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+About Bitten
+============
+
+Bitten is a simple distributed continuous integration system that not only
+coordinates builds across multiple machines, but also collects software
+metrics generated by builds, to enable feedback and reporting about
+the progress of a software project.
+
+The Bitten software consists of three separate parts:
+ * The build slave, which executes build on behalf of a local or remote
+   build master
+ * The build master, which orchestrate builds for a project across all
+   connected slaves, and stores the build status and results to the
+   database
+ * The web interface, which is implemented as an add-on to Trac
+   (http://trac.edgewall.com/) and provides a build management interface
+   as well as presentation of build results.
+
+Both the build master and the web interface depend on Trac 0.9 beta 1, and
+need to be installed on the same machine, together with the Subversion
+repository. The build slave only requires Python (>= 2.3) as well as the
+tools required by the build process itself. A build slave may be run on
+any machine that can connect to the server running the Bitten build master.
+
+
+Installation
+------------
+
+Bitten is written in Python, so make sure that you have Python installed.
+Also, make sure that the version of Python you have installed is 2.3 or
+later.
+
+If that's taken care of, you just need to download and unpack the Bitten
+distribution, and execute the command:
+
+  $ python setup.py install
+
+from the top of the directory where you unpacked (or checked out) the Bitten
+code. Note that you may need administrator/root privileges for this step, as
+it will attempt to install Bitten to the Python site-packages directory on
+your system.
+
+It's also a good idea to run the unit tests at this point, to make sure that
+the code works as expected on your platform:
+
+  $ python setup.py test
+
+
+What's left to do now depends on whether you want to use the build master and
+web interface, or just the build slave. In the latter case, you're already
+done. You might need to install software that the build of your project
+requires, but the Bitten build slave itself doesn't require anything extra.
+
+For the build master and web interface, you'll need to install Trac 0.9
+beta 1 and Berkeley DB XML >= 2.1.x, as well as their respective
+dependencies. Please refer to the documentation of those projects for
+information how they are installed.
+
+
+Build Master Configuration
+--------------------------
+
+Once Bitten, Trac and BDB XML are installed and working, you'll have to
+introduce Bitten to your Trac project environment. If you don't have a 
+Trac project set up yet, you'll need to do so in order to use Bitten.
+
+If you already have a Trac project environment, the Trac web interface
+will inform you with an error message that the environment needs to be
+upgraded. To do this, run:
+
+  $ trac-admin /path/to/projenv upgrade
+
+This will create the database tables and directories that Bitten requires.
+You probably also want to grant permissions to someone (such as yourself)
+to manage build configurations, and allow anonymous users to view the
+status and results of builds:
+
+  $ trac-admin /path/to/projenv permission add anonymous BUILD_VIEW
+  $ trac-admin /path/to/projenv permission add [yourname] BUILD_ADMIN
+
+You should now see an additional tab labelled "Build Status" in the Trac
+navigation bar. This link will take you to the list of build configurations,
+which at this point is of course empty. If you've set up permissions
+correctly as described previously, you should see a button for adding new
+build configurations. Click that button and fill out the form. Also, add
+at least one target platform after saving the configuration. Last but not
+least, you'll have to "active" the build configuration.
+
+
+Running the Build Master
+------------------------
+
+At this point, you're ready to start the Bitten build master. The
+installation of Bitten should have put a `bittend` script on your path.
+If the script is not on your path, look for it in the `bin` or `scripts`
+subdirectory of your Python installation.
+
+To find out about the options and arguments of the script, execute it with
+the `--help` option as follows:
+
+  $ bittend --help
+
+Most commonly, you'll want to specify the log level and log file, as well as
+the path to the Trac environment:
+
+  $ bittend --verbose --log=/var/log/bittend /var/trac/myproject
+
+
+Running the Build Slave
+-----------------------
+
+The build slave can be run on any machine that can connect to the machine
+on which the build master is running. Just as with the build master script,
+you should find the build slave script on your path after the installation.
+The build slave script is called `bitten`.
+
+To get a list of options for the build slave, execute it with the `--help`
+option:
+
+  $ bitten --help
+
+To run the build slave against a slave installed on myproject.example.org,
+you'd run:
+
+  $ bitten myproject.example.org
+
+
+More Information
+----------------
+
+For further documentation, please see the Bitten website at:
+
+  <http://bitten.cmlenz.net/>