improve INSTALL documentation

2 files changed, 23 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 8e3986e..ee64eae 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -1,16 +1,13 @@
-Installation of libretools is pretty straight-forward.  The only
-tricky thing is the weird dependence on the devtools-par source code.
-
-The build system will by default look at `$(topdir)/../devtools-par`
-for the devtools-par source code.  This can be changed by adjusting
-the `devtoolsdir` configuration variable, see "Configuration" below.
-
-Once you have the devtools source taken care of, you can have the
-default everything-included install by running:
+Installation of libretools is pretty straight-forward:
 
 	$ make
 	# make install
 
+As a caveat, by default, if the directory `devtools-par` exists in the
+same directory as the `libretools-${version}` directory, and contains
+newer files than the libretools directory, they will be copied into
+the libretools directory.  See INSTALL-VCS for more details.
+
 Dependencies
 ------------
 
diff --git a/INSTALL-VCS b/INSTALL-VCS
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be80d41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/INSTALL-VCS
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+The only tricky thing when building from Git is the weird dependence
+on the devtools-par source code.
+
+The build system will by default look at `$(topdir)/../devtools-par`
+for the devtools-par source code, and copy the relevant files into the
+libretools directory.  This can be changed by adjusting the
+`devtoolsdir` configuration variable, see "Configuration" in the main
+INSTALL file.  If the `$(devtoolsdir)` directory does not exist, but
+all of the copied files exist in the libretools directory, they will
+simply be used.
+
+In the distribution tarball includes the copies of the devtools files,
+so it is not necessary to download the devtools source separately
+when using the tarball.
+
+Once you have the devtools source taken care of, you can build and
+install like normal.