+----------------------------+
|      Welcome to Mule!      |
|----------------------------|
| http://mule.mulesource.org |
+----------------------------+
Mule is a highly scalable Enterprise Services framework and messaging broker.
Here is some useful information to get you started.

+--------------+
| INSTALLATION |
+--------------+
If you're reading this, it means you've already downloaded and unpacked the 
distribution.  The only other thing you need to do to get started using Mule is 
to set the location of your Mule installation and add it to your path.  This 
will depend on your platform, but is usually something like the following:

Linux / Unix
------------
export MULE_HOME=/opt/mule
export PATH=$PATH:$MULE_HOME/bin

Windows
-------
set MULE_HOME=C:\Mule
set PATH=%PATH%;%MULE_HOME%\bin

(or by using the System utility in the Control Panel for Windows NT/2000/XP)

+----------------------+
| ADDITIONAL LIBRARIES |
+----------------------+
Mule has connectors for a wide variety of technologies, however in some cases in 
order to actually use the connector, libraries are required which cannot be 
distributed as part of Mule due to licensing restrictions.  In these cases it is 
up to the user to obtain the needed libraries and place them in the 
$MULE_HOME/lib/user directory.

As a convenience, the very first time Mule is started, it will try to download 
Sun Microsystems' javax.mail, javax.activation, and jsr223 (scripting) 
libraries.  If you are behind a firewall, you may need to configure your HTTP 
proxy settings in the file $MULE_HOME/conf/wrapper.conf in order for this 
download to work.

+--------------+
| DISTRIBUTION |
+--------------+
The distribution you have downloaded contains the following:

./bin          - Shell and batch scripts for controlling Mule from the command 
                 line
./conf         - Configuration files
./docs         - API documentation (javadoc) for Mule and its sub-projects
./examples     - Example applications you can run and try building yourself
./lib/boot     - Libraries used by the Java Service Wrapper to boot up the 
                 server
./lib/mule     - Mule libraries
./lib/native   - Platform-specific (non-Java) libraries
./lib/opt      - Non-Mule libraries
./lib/user     - This is where you should place your custom classes/libraries.
                 This directory comes before ./lib/mule on the classpath and can
                 therefore be used to patch the distributed Mule classes if 
                 necessary.
./licences     - License information for all libraries shipped with Mule
./logs         - Output will be sent here by default when running in background 
                 mode
./src          - An export of the Mule source code, useful for importing into 
                 your IDE
./INSTALL.txt  - erm... this file!
./LICENSE.txt  - License agreement for Mule
./USAGE.txt    - Basic usage of Mule from the command-line

+-----------------+
| GETTING STARTED |
+-----------------+
Take a look at the latest documentation on our website:
http://www.muledocs.org/Getting+Started+Guide

User Guide:
http://www.muledocs.org/User+Guide

Example Applications:
http://www.muledocs.org/Examples

+----------+
| FEEDBACK |
+----------+
We hope you enjoy using Mule. To help us make it a better product please tell
us about any issues (no matter how small), suggestions or other comments you 
have.  You can post on the Mule User's mailing list - user@mule.codehaus.org or 
raise issues at http://mule.mulesource.org/jira/browse/MULE

Enjoy!
The Mule Team

