fill in more of the README

README.md

 # bake-bulk
 
-Example execution:
+## Dependencies
 
-$ ./bake-bulk-server sm://1/1 /dev/shm/foo.dat
+* uuid (install uuid-dev package on ubuntu)
+* NVML/libpmem (see instructions below)
+* margo (see instructions at https://xgitlab.cels.anl.gov/sds/margo)
 
-$ ./bb-latency-bench sm:///tmp/cci/sm/carns-x1/1/1 100000 4 8
+You can compile and install the latest git revision of NVML as follows:
 
-The tcmalloc library will lower and stabilize latency somewhat.  On ubuntu
-you can use tcmalloc by running this in the terminal before the server and
-client commands:
+* `git clone https://github.com/pmem/nvml.git`
+* `cd nvml`
+* `make`
+* `make install prefix=/home/carns/working/install/`
+
+## Compilation
+
+* `./prepare.sh`
+* `mkdir build`
+* `cd build`
+* `../configure --prefix=/home/carns/working/install`
+* `make`
+
+If any dependencies are installed in a nonstandard location, then
+modify the configure step listed above to include the following argument:
+
+* `PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/home/carns/working/install/lib/pkgconfig`
+
+
+## Server daemon execution example (using tmpfs memory as backing store)
+
+* `truncate -s 500M /dev/shm/foo.dat`
+* `pmempool create obj /dev/shm/foo.dat`
+* `bake-bulk-server sm://1/1 /dev/shm/foo.dat`
+
+### Explanation
+
+The truncate command creates an empty 500 MiB file in /dev/shm,
+which will act as a ramdisk for storage in this case.  You can skip this step
+if you are using a true NVRAM device file.
+
+The pmempool command formats the storage device as a pmem target for
+libpmemobj.
+
+The bake-bulk-server command starts the server daemon.  
+
+The first argument to bake-bulk-server is
+the address for Mercury to listen on.  In this case we are using the CCI/SM
+transport, and the "1/1" portion of the URL specifies the last two components
+of the /tmp path to use for SM connection information. For other transports
+this would more likely just be a port number.
+
+The second argument to bake-bulk-server is the path to the libpmem-formatted
+storage device.
+
+## Benchmark execution example
+
+* `./bb-latency-bench sm:///tmp/cci/sm/carns-x1/1/1 100000 4 8`
+
+This example runs a sequence of latency benchmarks.  Other bb- utilities
+installed with bake-bulk will perform other rudimentary operations.
+
+The first argument is the address of the server.  We are using CCI/SM in this
+case, which means that the URL is a path to the connection information of the
+server in /tmp.  The base (not changeable) portion of the path is
+/tmp/cci/HOSTNAME.  The remainder of the path was specified by the server
+daemon when it started.
+
+The second argument is the number of benchmark iterations.
+
+The third and fourth arguments specify the range of sizes to use for read and
+write operations in the benchmark.
+
+## Misc tips
+
+Memory allocation seems to account for a significant portion of
+the latency as of this writing.  The tcmalloc library will lower and
+stabilize latency somewhat as a partial short-term solution.  On ubuntu
+you can use tcmalloc by running this in the terminal before the server
+and client commands:
 
 export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libtcmalloc.so.4