diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1febad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+# SSHFS
+
+
+## About
+
+SSHFS allows you to mount a remote filesystem using SFTP. Most SSH
+servers support and enable this SFTP access by default, so SSHFS is
+very simple to use - there's nothing to do on the server-side.
+
+
+## Development Status
+
+
+SSHFS is shipped by all major Linux distributions and has been in
+production use across a wide range of systems for many years. However,
+at present SSHFS does not have any active, regular contributors, and
+there are a number of known issues (see the [bugtracker](https://github.com/deadbeefsociety/sshfs/issues)).  The current
+maintainer continues to apply pull requests and makes regular
+releases, but unfortunately has no capacity to do any development
+beyond addressing high-impact issues. When reporting bugs, please
+understand that unless you are including a pull request or are
+reporting a critical issue, you will probably not get a response.
+
+
+## How to use
+
+
+Once sshfs is installed (see next section) running it is very simple:
+
+```
+sshfs [user@]hostname:[directory] mountpoint
+```
+
+It is recommended to run SSHFS as regular user (not as root).  For
+this to work the mountpoint must be owned by the user.  If username is
+omitted SSHFS will use the local username. If the directory is
+omitted, SSHFS will mount the (remote) home directory.  If you need to
+enter a password sshfs will ask for it (actually it just runs ssh
+which asks for the password if needed).
+
+Also many ssh options can be specified (see the manual pages for
+*sftp(1)* and *ssh_config(5)*), including the remote port number
+(`-oport=PORT`)
+
+To unmount the filesystem:
+
+```
+fusermount -u mountpoint
+```
+
+On BSD and macOS, to unmount the filesystem:
+
+```
+umount mountpoint
+```
+
+## Installation
+
+
+First, download the latest SSHFS release from
+https://github.com/deadbeefsociety/sshfs/releases. You also need [libfuse](http://github.com/libfuse/libfuse) 3.1.0 or newer (or a
+similar library that provides a libfuse3 compatible interface for your operating
+system). Finally, you need the [Glib](https://developer.gnome.org/glib/stable/) library with development headers (which should be
+available from your operating system's package manager).
+
+To build and install, we recommend to use [Meson](http://mesonbuild.com/) (version 0.38 or
+newer) and [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org/).  After extracting the sshfs tarball, create a
+(temporary) build directory and run Meson:
+
+```
+$ mkdir build; cd build
+$ meson ..
+```
+
+Normally, the default build options will work fine. If you
+nevertheless want to adjust them, you can do so with the *mesonconf*
+command:
+
+```
+$ mesonconf                  # list options
+$ mesonconf -D strip=true    # set an option
+```
+
+To build, test and install SSHFS, you then use Ninja (running the
+tests requires the [py.test](http://www.pytest.org/) Python module):
+
+```
+$ ninja
+$ python3 -m pytest test/    # optional, but recommended
+$ sudo ninja install
+```
+
+## Getting Help
+
+
+If you need help, please ask on the <fuse-sshfs@lists.sourceforge.net>
+mailing list (subscribe at
+https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fuse-sshfs).
+
+Please report any bugs on the GitHub issue tracker at
+https://github.com/deadbeefsociety/sshfs/issues.
+
+## Packaging Status
+
+
+<a href="https://repology.org/project/fusefs:sshfs/versions">
+    <img src="https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/fusefs:sshfs.svg" alt="Packaging status" >
+</a>