Update README file

README.md

@@ -1,2 +1,73 @@
 # syslog-bulk-uploader
-Utility to send a bunch of syslog records in text file to syslog server
+Syslog-bulk-uploader is non-interactive utility designed to read syslog records from one or more files and send them
+to remote syslog server. The format of syslog records in input files is:
+
+    <timestamp> <facility.severity> <source> <message>
+
+Field separator is one or more space (ASCII 32) or tab (ASCII 9) characters.
+All whitespace characters in the _message_ field will be interpreted as part of the message, not as separators.
+
+Fields of the syslog record are:
+<dl>
+    <dt><strong>timestamp</strong></dt>
+    <dd>in format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS</dd>
+    <dt><strong>facility</strong></dt>
+    <dd>one of syslog facility strings: *kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp, clock, authpriv, ftp, ntp, logaudit, logalert, cron, local0, local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6, local7*</dd>
+    <dt><strong>severity</strong></dt>
+    <dd>one of syslog severity strings: *emergency, alert, critical, error, warning, notice, informational, debug*</dd>
+    <dt><strong>source</strong></dt>
+    <dd>IP address or host name of message source</dd>
+    <dt><strong>message</strong></dt>
+    <dd>the text of the message itself</dd>
+</dl>
+
+## Command line
+
+General invocation is:
+
+    syslog-bulk-uploader [option]... [file]...
+
+Option is one of the following:
+
+<dl>
+    <dt><strong>-h --help</strong></dt>
+    <dd>display help message, then exit</dd>
+    <dt><strong>-v --version</strong></dt>
+    <dd>display version information, then exit</dd>
+    <dt><strong>-m --mps</strong> num</dt>
+    <dd>send messages at specified rate per second; default, if not specified, is 1000</dd>
+    <dt><strong>-d --dest</strong> dest</dt>
+    <dd>destination host name</dd>
+    <dt><strong>-p --port</strong> arg</dt>
+    <dd>destination port; default, if not specified, is 514</dd>
+    <dt><strong>[-f --files]</strong> filename</dt>
+    <dd>one or more input files; option name (-f or --file) is optional, i.e. all non-named arguments will be interpreted as filenames</dd>
+</dl>
+
+If more than one input file is specified on the command line, syslog-bulk-uploader will send contents of each one in the order specified.
+
+## Building from source
+
+### Dependencies
+In order to build syslog-bulk-uploader from source, you will need to have a couple of dependencies pre-installed on your system:
+
+* [CMake](http://www.cmake.org) as the build system
+* Any recent C++ compiler supported by CMake on your platform (GCC, Clang, Visual C++, etc)
+* boost-date-time library
+* boost-filesystem library
+* boost-system library
+* boost-thread library
+* boost-program-options library
+* `a2x` executable (part of [AsciiDoc](http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc), required to build man page)
+
+### Building
+Once you have all the pre-requisites:
+
+    git clone git@github.com:zmarko/syslog-bulk-uploader.git
+    cd syslog-bulk-uploader/build
+    cmake ..
+    make && make install
+
+### Installers
+During the build it is also possible to build installer packages. Supported installers at this time are:
+**RPM**, **DEB** and plain **.tar.gz** archive.