Add a Readme

Author: killercup

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# Static FileZ
+
+> **Build compressed archives for static files and serve them over HTTP**
+
+[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.com/killercup/static-filez.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.com/killercup/static-filez)
+
+## What and Why
+
+Say you want to store a huge number of very small files
+that you are only viewing in a browser.
+For example: You are using `rustdoc` to render the documentation of a library.
+Without much work you'll end up with about 100k files that are about 10kB each.
+As it turns out, this number of small files is very annoying for any kind of file system performance:
+Best case: making copies/backups is slow.
+Worst case: You're using an anti virus software and it takes ages.
+
+Except for convenience when implementing software,
+and people being used to having folders of files they can look into,
+there is little reason to store these files individually.
+Indeed, it will save much space and time to store files like these in compressed form in one continuous archive.
+All that is needed to make this work is
+some well-designed and discoverable software.
+
+_static-filez_ is a prototype for that piece of software.
+
+## Installation
+
+For now, `cargo install --git https://github.com/killercup/static-filez`.
+
+## Usage
+
+1. Build an archive (and index) from a directory: `static-filez build target/doc/ ./docs.archive`
+2. Start a HTTP server that serves the files in the archive: `static-filez serve -p 3000 docs.archive`
+3. Open a browser and see your files: `http://127.0.0.1:3000/regex/`
+   (`regex` is an example for a great documentation page you should read)
+
+## Architecture
+
+Currently, _static-filez_ will generate two files:
+An `.index` file, and an `.archive` file.
+
+The index is a specialized data structure
+that maps paths to their content in the archive.
+
+The archive file contains the (compressed) content of your files.
+The server is implemented in a way that it can serve the compressed content directly,
+with no need to ever look at the (potentially much larger) original decompressed data.
+(This works by using the HTTP Content-Encoding header, if you are curios.)
+
+You can read more about the structure of the files in
+[this issue](https://github.com/killercup/static-filez/issues/1),
+or, of course, the source.
+
+## License
+
+Licensed under either of
+
+ * Apache License, Version 2.0, ([LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
+ * MIT license ([LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
+
+at your option.
+
+### Contribution
+
+Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally
+submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0
+license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or
+conditions.