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+downtimed - system downtime monitoring and reporting tool
+=========================================================
+
+Copyright (c) 2009-2016 Janne Snabb. All rights reserved.
+
+This software is licensed under the terms and conditions of the Simplified
+BSD License. You should have received a copy of that license along with
+this software.
+
+Software web site:
+
+https://dist.epipe.com/downtimed/
+
+Development version is available at GitHub:
+
+https://github.com/snabb/downtimed
+
+Use GitHub for reporting bugs, sending contributions etc.
+
+
+## Portability
+
+Compatible operating systems / distributions:
+ - GNU/Linux
+ - FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
+ - Mac OS X/Darwin
+ - GNU/Hurd
+ - Solaris / OpenSolaris / OpenIndiana
+
+The only really non-portable part of the program is the getboottime()
+function which uses an operating system specific interface for finding
+the exact moment when the kernel started again. The function can be
+easily altered to add support for additional operating systems. The
+author would appreciate receiving any such patches to be integrated in
+the main distribution.
+
+Also for the sake of convenience the program uses some functions which
+are available only in modern operating systems. These include for example
+asprintf(3), vasprintf(3), snprintf(3), err(3) and errx(3).
+
+
+## History
+
+The author of this software had a Xen based virtual private server
+(VPS) running FreeBSD operating system. Occasionally the owner of the
+physical non-virtual machine would turn off the VPS to do some system
+administration tasks on the host operating system, which the author did
+not have access to. The author wanted to have some sort of record of when,
+why and how long the VPS had been down. The standard FreeBSD system did
+not provide such a facility.
+
+After some looking around it seemed that there was only programs for
+monitoring uptime but not downtime. Also most of these programs were
+complicated and were intended to be run on a remote host and thus they
+would be actually monitoring the system availability through the network
+instead of the actual downtime of the FreeBSD operating system running
+on the VPS. Also they would require an another server for monitoring
+the primary server.
+
+Therefore downtimed was needed.
+
+
+## Features
+
+downtimed was made to monitor operating system downtime, shutdowns and
+crashes on the monitored host itself and to keep a record of such events.
+
+downtimed(8) is a daemon process which is intended to be started
+automatically from system boot scripts every time when the operating
+system of a server starts. First the daemon logs its findings about the
+previous downtime to a specified logging destination as well as in a
+database file which can be displayed with downtimes(1) command.
+
+Thereafter the downtimed(8) daemon just keeps waiting in the background
+and periodically updates a time stamp file on the disk. The time stamp
+is used to determine the approximate time when the system was last up
+and running. In case of a graceful system shutdown it records a stamp
+to another file on the disk. These files are used for reporting the next
+time the daemon starts.
+
+downtimes(1) is a command-line tool which can be used to inspect previous
+downtime records recorded in the downtime database file.
+
+
+## Installation
+
+Installation should be preferably done through a port or a package
+which is tailored to your specific operating system.
+
+If one does not exist or if you yourself are making such a port or a
+package, the basic GNU autotools based installation should be as follows:
+
+```
+./configure
+make
+make install
+```
+
+The above does NOT install any startup scripts which are REQUIRED for
+proper function of downtimed. See the following chapter.
+
+The program also needs a persistent data directory for the time stamp
+and the downtime database files. It should be created on *BSD and
+MacOS X as follows:
+
+`mkdir /var/db/downtimed`
+
+...or on GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, GNU/Hurd or Solaris as follows:
+
+`mkdir /var/lib/downtimed`
+
+Note that you can determine the default data directory location on
+your system by issuing `downtimed -v` command or you can specify a
+different directory with the `-d` option. Set the directory permissions
+as appropriate in your environment. If you are installing a port or
+package tailored for your system, this step is most likely taken care
+for you automatically.
+
+
+## Startup scripts
+
+It seems that every different operating system and distribution has
+invented their own ways of starting system daemons during the boot
+process. That is a major pain in the ass.
+
+The downtimed distribution includes the following operating system and
+distribution specific startup script samples. They are located in the
+"startup-scripts" directory. It is assumed that system administrators
+or port/package maintainers will implement and configure the required
+startup scripts. They are not installed by default.
+
+This program is not really useful unless there is a proper startup script
+in place. Refer to your operating system or distribution manual on how
+to create and manage daemon startup scripts.
+
+### systemd: Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL / CentOS
+
+Debian 8, Ubuntu 15.04, RHEL / CentOS 7 and later versions are using systemd
+for managing system services.
+
+systemd unit file is included as downtimed.service. It should be installed
+as /etc/systemd/system/downtimed.service. Issue the following commands as
+root to enable and start the service:
+```
+systemctl enable downtimed
+systemctl start downtimed
+
+```
+
+### Arch Linux
+
+Arch Linux startup script is included as archlinux-startup.sh. It should
+be installed as /etc/rc.d/downtimed and added to the DAEMONS setting in
+/etc/rc.conf.
+
+### FreeBSD
+
+A sample startup script for FreeBSD is included as freebsd-startup.sh.
+It should be installed as /usr/local/etc/rc.d/downtimed.
+
+Add `downtimed_enable="YES"` in one of the following files to enable boot time
+startup: /etc/rc.conf /etc/rc.conf.local /etc/rc.conf.d/downtimed
+
+Add the following if you want to configure downtimed(8) command line
+options: `downtimed_flags="<set as needed>"`
+
+### Mac OS X
+
+Mac OS X/Darwin launchd(8) configuration file com.epipe.downtimed.plist is
+also included. This file should be installed to /Library/LaunchDaemons.
+
+### OpenIndiana / OpenSolaris / Solaris
+
+SMF (Service Management Facility) manifest for OpenIndiana, OpenSolaris
+and Solaris 10 & 11 is in downtimed.smf.xml. It is not usable on Solaris
+9 and older as they need a SysV style init script instead.
+
+### openSUSE
+
+A startup script for openSUSE is included as opensuse-startup.sh. It
+should be installed as /etc/init.d/downtimed. Running the command
+`innserv /etc/init.d/downtimed` enables starting the service at the
+system startup.
+
+### old Debian
+
+A startup script for GNU/Debian and related distributions with SysV style
+init scripts is included as debian-startup.sh. It should be installed as
+/etc/init.d/downtimed. Running the command `update-rc.d downtimed defaults`
+enables starting the service at the system startup.
+
+Users of Debian 8 and later should look at the systemd instructions above.
+
+### old RHEL based distributions (CentOS, Scientific Linux, Oracle Linux)
+
+A startup script for RHEL 5 and 6 and related distributions is included as
+redhat-startup.sh. It should be installed as /etc/rc.d/init.d/downtimed.
+Running the command `chkconfig --add downtimed` enables starting the
+service at the system startup.
+
+Users of RHEL/CentOS 7 and later should look at the systemd instructions above.
+
+### old Ubuntu
+
+A startup script for GNU/Linux distributions using upstart(8) to bring
+up system daemons, such as the Ubuntu distribution until version 14.10, is
+included in upstart-startup.conf. It should be installed as
+/etc/init/downtimed.conf.
+
+Users of Ubuntu 15.04 and later should look at the systemd instructions above.
+
+
+## Usage documentation
+
+Have a look at downtimed(8) manual page:
+
+`man downtimed`
+
+... as well as the downtimes(1) manual page:
+
+`man downtimes`
+
+Alternatively you can find a PDF version of the manual pages at:
+
+https://dist.epipe.com/downtimed/
+
+
+## Contributions
+
+If you port this software to a new operating system, find bugs or
+implement new features, it would be nice if you could send your patches
+to the author either through Github or by e-mail. See the top of this
+document for contact information.
+
+
+## Acknowledgements
+
+The following people have contributed patches or other improvements to
+this software:
+
+Henrik Ahlgren <pablo at seestieto.com>
+ - Mac OS X patches
+
+Mats Erik Andersson <openbsd at gisladisker.se>
+ - OpenBSD, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD and other patches
+
+Federico Lucifredi <flucifredi at acm.org>
+ - openSUSE startup script
+
+Jason Melton <jason.melton at gmail.com>
+ - Arch Linux startup script
+
+Douglas Thrift <douglas at douglasthrift.net>
+ - FreeBSD 9 compatibility fix
+
+Others who I may have forgotten. (Sorry!)
+
+Thank You!
+