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+INSTALL
+=======
+
+Alot depends on development versions of notmuch and urwid. Note that due to restrictions
+on argparse and subprocess, you need to run *python v>=2.7*, which only recently made it
+into debian testing.
+
+urwid
+-----
+make sure you have urwid v >=1.0. To install from git use:
+
+    git clone http://github.com/wardi/urwid
+    cd urwid
+    sudo python setup.py install
+
+It seems you need the python headers for this. On debian/ubuntu:
+
+    aptitude install python2.7-dev
+
+
+notmuch
+-------
+install notmuch *and* python bindings from git:
+
+    git clone git://notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch
+
+    cd notmuch
+    ./configure
+    make
+    sudo make install
+    cd bindings/python
+    sudo python setup.py install
+
+
+alot
+----
+get alot and install it from git:
+
+    git clone git://github.com/pazz/alot alot
+    cd alot
+    sudo python setup.py install
+
+That's it, now `alot` should be in your path.
+
+Alot tries to be as unobtrusive as possible, with one exception: It forces you to use
+UTF-8 encoding whereever it can: All text parts and headers of outgoing emails are
+converted to utf-8, notmuch tagstrings, edited emails and config files are interpreted as
+Utf-8.
+
+All configs are optional, but if you want to send mails you need to specify at least one
+account section in your config:
+
+    [account uoe]
+    realname = Your Name
+    address = your@address
+
+See `CUSTOMIZE.md` on how to do fancy customization.