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+QEMU Python Tooling
+===================
+
+This directory houses Python tooling used by the QEMU project to build,
+configure, and test QEMU. It is organized by namespace (``qemu``), and
+then by package (e.g. ``qemu/machine``, ``qemu/qmp``, etc).
+
+``setup.py`` is used by ``pip`` to install this tooling to the current
+environment. ``setup.cfg`` provides the packaging configuration used by
+``setup.py``. You will generally invoke it by doing one of the following:
+
+1. ``pip3 install .`` will install these packages to your current
+   environment. If you are inside a virtual environment, they will
+   install there. If you are not, it will attempt to install to the
+   global environment, which is **not recommended**.
+
+2. ``pip3 install --user .`` will install these packages to your user's
+   local python packages. If you are inside of a virtual environment,
+   this will fail; you want the first invocation above.
+
+If you append the ``--editable`` or ``-e`` argument to either invocation
+above, pip will install in "editable" mode. This installs the package as
+a forwarder ("qemu.egg-link") that points to the source tree. In so
+doing, the installed package always reflects the latest version in your
+source tree.
+
+Installing ".[devel]" instead of "." will additionally pull in required
+packages for testing this package. They are not runtime requirements,
+and are not needed to simply use these libraries.
+
+Running ``make develop`` will pull in all testing dependencies and
+install QEMU in editable mode to the current environment.
+(It is a shortcut for ``pip3 install -e .[devel]``.)
+
+See `Installing packages using pip and virtual environments
+<https://packaging.python.org/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/>`_
+for more information.
+
+
+Using these packages without installing them
+--------------------------------------------
+
+These packages may be used without installing them first, by using one
+of two tricks:
+
+1. Set your PYTHONPATH environment variable to include this source
+   directory, e.g. ``~/src/qemu/python``. See
+   https://docs.python.org/3/using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONPATH
+
+2. Inside a Python script, use ``sys.path`` to forcibly include a search
+   path prior to importing the ``qemu`` namespace. See
+   https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#sys.path
+
+A strong downside to both approaches is that they generally interfere
+with static analysis tools being able to locate and analyze the code
+being imported.
+
+Package installation also normally provides executable console scripts,
+so that tools like ``qmp-shell`` are always available via $PATH. To
+invoke them without installation, you can invoke e.g.:
+
+``> PYTHONPATH=~/src/qemu/python python3 -m qemu.qmp.qmp_shell``
+
+The mappings between console script name and python module path can be
+found in ``setup.cfg``.
+
+
+Files in this directory
+-----------------------
+
+- ``qemu/`` Python 'qemu' namespace package source directory.
+- ``tests/`` Python package tests directory.
+- ``avocado.cfg`` Configuration for the Avocado test-runner.
+  Used by ``make check`` et al.
+- ``Makefile`` provides some common testing/installation invocations.
+  Try ``make help`` to see available targets.
+- ``MANIFEST.in`` is read by python setuptools, it specifies additional files
+  that should be included by a source distribution.
+- ``PACKAGE.rst`` is used as the README file that is visible on PyPI.org.
+- ``Pipfile`` is used by Pipenv to generate ``Pipfile.lock``.
+- ``Pipfile.lock`` is a set of pinned package dependencies that this package
+  is tested under in our CI suite. It is used by ``make check-pipenv``.
+- ``README.rst`` you are here!
+- ``VERSION`` contains the PEP-440 compliant version used to describe
+  this package; it is referenced by ``setup.cfg``.
+- ``setup.cfg`` houses setuptools package configuration.
+- ``setup.py`` is the setuptools installer used by pip; See above.