diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
deleted file mode 100644
index ad813e6574db..000000000000
--- a/INSTALL
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-For installation of PHP, please refer to the online documentation available at:
-
-https://php.net/install
diff --git a/README.WIN32-BUILD-SYSTEM b/README.WIN32-BUILD-SYSTEM
deleted file mode 100644
index 32ebc6b691a9..000000000000
--- a/README.WIN32-BUILD-SYSTEM
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-The Win32 Build System.
-
-See https://wiki.php.net/internals/windows/stepbystepbuild_sdk_2
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9f34f8a90692..7ac35400bbaf 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,46 +1,111 @@
-The PHP Interpreter
-===================
+
-This is the github mirror of the official PHP repository located at
-https://git.php.net.
+# The PHP Interpreter
-[](http://travis-ci.org/php/php-src)
+PHP is a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to
+web development. Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your
+blog to the most popular websites in the world. PHP is distributed under the PHP
+License v3.01.
+
+[](https://travis-ci.org/php/php-src)
[](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/php/php-src)
-Pull Requests
-=============
-PHP accepts pull requests via github. Discussions are done on github, but
-depending on the topic can also be relayed to the official PHP developer
-mailing list internals@lists.php.net.
+## Documentation
+
+The PHP manual is available online at [php.net/docs](https://php.net/docs).
+
+## Installation
+
+### Prebuilt packages and binaries
+
+Prebuilt packages and binaries can be used to get up and running fast with PHP.
+
+For Windows, the PHP binaries can be obtained from
+[windows.php.net](https://windows.php.net). After extracting the archive the
+`*.exe` files are ready to use.
+
+For other systems, see the [installation chapter](https://php.net/install).
+
+### Building PHP from source
+
+On \*nix systems:
+
+ ./buildconf
+ ./configure
+ make
+ make test
+ sudo make install
-New features require an RFC and must be accepted by the developers.
-See https://wiki.php.net/rfc and https://wiki.php.net/rfc/voting for more
-information on the process.
+See `./configure -h` and `make -h` for configuration options. For example, the
+optional `-j` option allows parallel execution of the build recipes based on the
+number of available processor cores. For example, on 8-core and 16-threads
+processor the build command is then:
-Bug fixes **do not** require an RFC, but require a bugtracker ticket. Always
-open a ticket at https://bugs.php.net and reference the bug id using #NNNNNN.
+ make -j 16
+
+For Windows, see
+[wiki pages](https://wiki.php.net/internals/windows/stepbystepbuild_sdk_2).
+
+## PHP extensions
+
+Extensions provide additional functionality on top of PHP. PHP consists of many
+essential bundled extensions. Additional extensions can be found in the PHP
+Extension Community Library ([PECL](https://pecl.php.net)).
+
+## Contributing
+
+The PHP source code is located in the Git repository at
+[git.php.net](https://git.php.net). Contributions are most welcome by forking
+the [GitHub mirror repository](https://github.com/php/php-src) and sending a
+pull request.
+
+Discussions are done on GitHub, but depending on the topic can also be relayed
+to the official PHP developer mailing list internals@lists.php.net.
+
+New features require an RFC and must be accepted by the developers. See
+[Request for Comments - RFC](https://wiki.php.net/rfc) and
+[Voting on PHP features](https://wiki.php.net/rfc/voting) for more information
+on the process.
+
+Bug fixes **do not** require an RFC, but require a bug tracker ticket. Open a
+ticket at [bugs.php.net](https://bugs.php.net) and reference the bug id using
+`#NNNNNN`.
Fix #55371: get_magic_quotes_gpc() throws deprecation warning
- After removing magic quotes, the get_magic_quotes_gpc function caused
- a deprecate warning. get_magic_quotes_gpc can be used to detected
- the magic_quotes behavior and therefore should not raise a warning at any
- time. The patch removes this warning
+ After removing magic quotes, the get_magic_quotes_gpc function caused a
+ deprecated warning. get_magic_quotes_gpc can be used to detect the
+ magic_quotes behavior and therefore should not raise a warning at any time.
+ The patch removes this warning.
-We do not merge pull requests directly on github. All PRs will be
-pulled and pushed through https://git.php.net.
+Pull requests are not merged directly on GitHub. All PRs will be pulled and
+pushed through [git.php.net](https://git.php.net). See
+[Git workflow](https://wiki.php.net/vcs/gitworkflow) for more details.
+### Guidelines for contributors
-Guidelines for contributors
-===========================
-- [CODING_STANDARDS](/CODING_STANDARDS)
-- [README.GIT-RULES](/README.GIT-RULES)
-- [README.MAILINGLIST_RULES](/README.MAILINGLIST_RULES)
-- [README.RELEASE_PROCESS](/README.RELEASE_PROCESS)
+See further documents in the repository for more information how to contribute:
+
+- [Contributing to PHP](/CONTRIBUTING.md)
+- [PHP coding standards](/CODING_STANDARDS)
+- [Git rules](/README.GIT-RULES)
+- [Mailinglist rules](/README.MAILINGLIST_RULES)
+- [PHP release process](/README.RELEASE_PROCESS)
## Testing
-To run tests the `make test` is used after successful compilation of the sources.
+To run tests the `make test` is used after a successful compilation of the
+sources. The `-j` option provides faster parallel execution, where `N` is the
+number of cores:
+
+ make -j N test
-See [Creating new test files](https://qa.php.net/write-test.php) chapter for more
-information about testing.
+The [qa.php.net](https://qa.php.net) site provides more detailed info about
+testing and quality assurance.
diff --git a/win32/build/Makefile b/win32/build/Makefile
index d0a2d4e1fb9f..233f38c03766 100644
--- a/win32/build/Makefile
+++ b/win32/build/Makefile
@@ -229,7 +229,6 @@ snap: build-snap build-devel build-dist
$(BUILD_DIR)\deplister.exe: win32\build\deplister.c
$(CC) /nologo /Fo$(BUILD_DIR)\ /Fd$(BUILD_DIR)\ /Fp$(BUILD_DIR)\ /FR$(BUILD_DIR) /Fe$(BUILD_DIR)\deplister.exe win32\build\deplister.c imagehlp.lib
-# need to redirect, since INSTALL is a file in the root...
install: really-install install-sdk
build-lib: build-ext-libs
diff --git a/win32/build/mkdist.php b/win32/build/mkdist.php
index 3f8d6e05c133..156ba45379c7 100644
--- a/win32/build/mkdist.php
+++ b/win32/build/mkdist.php
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ function extract_file_from_tarball($pkg, $filename, $dest_dir) /* {{{ */
$text_files = array(
"LICENSE" => "license.txt",
"NEWS" => "news.txt",
- "INSTALL" => "install.txt",
+ "README.md" => "README.md",
"README.REDIST.BINS" => "readme-redist-bins.txt",
"php.ini-development" => "php.ini-development",
"php.ini-production" => "php.ini-production"