%REPO_NAME%

%DESCRIPTION%

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Installation
• Usage
• Known issues and limitations
• Getting help
• Contributing
• License
• Authors and history
• Acknowledgments

Introduction

This README file is in Markdown format, and is meant to provide a template for README files as well an illustration of what the README file can be expected to look like. For software, this Introduction section – which you are presently reading – should provide background for the program, a brief explanation of what the project is about, and optionally, pointers to resources that can help orient readers. Ideally, this section should be short.

Installation

Begin this section by mentioning any prerequisites that may be important for users to have before they can use your software. Examples include hardware and operating system requirements.

Next, provide step-by-step instructions for installing the software, preferably with command examples that can be copy-pasted by readers into their software environments.

Sometimes, subsections may be needed for different operating systems or particularly complicated installations.

Usage

This Usage section would explain more about how to run the software, what kind of behavior to expect, and so on.

Begin with the simplest possible example of how to use your software. Provide example command lines and/or screen images, as appropriate, to help readers understand how the software is expected to be used. Many readers are likely to look for command lines they can copy-paste directly from your explanations, so it's best to keep that in mind as you write examples.

Some programs are complicated and users can benefit from additional sections in the README file. It's difficult to give specific instructions – a lot depends on your software, your intended audience, etc. Use your judgment and ask for feedback from users or colleagues to help figure out what else is worth explaining.

Known issues and limitations

In this section, summarize any notable issues and/or limitations of your software. If none are known yet, this section can be omitted (and don't forget to remove the corresponding entry in the Table of Contents too); alternatively, you can leave this section in and write something along the lines of "none are known at this time".

Getting help

If you find an issue, please submit it in the GitHub issue tracker for this repository.

Contributing

Your help and participation in enhancing %REPO_NAME% is welcome! Please visit the guidelines for contributing for some tips on getting started.

License

Software produced by the Caltech Library is Copyright © %CREATION_YEAR% California Institute of Technology. This software is freely distributed under a BSD-style license. Please see the LICENSE file for more information.

Authors and history

In this section, list the authors and contributors to this software project. Adding additional notes here about the history of the software and the overall project can make it more interesting and compelling. This is also a place where you can acknowledge other contributions to the work and the use of other people's software or tools.

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the California Institute of Technology Library.