INSTALLATION
Unzip the distribution in the location of your choice.
On unix/linux systems, make the bin/osmosis script executable (ie. chmod u+x osmosis).
If desired, create a symbolic link to the osmosis script somewhere on your path (eg. ln -s appdir/bin/osmosis ~/bin/osmosis).

CONFIGURATION
Common command line options can be specified in configuration files.

On Linux, the file can reside in the following locations with later files overriding earlier files:
/etc/osmosis
$HOME/.osmosis

On Windows, the file can reside in the following locations with later files overriding earlier files:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\osmosis.bat
%USERPROFILE%\osmosis.bat

The following variables can be defined in these files:
JAVACMD - The java command to be invoked.  Default is "java".
JAVACMD_OPTIONS - The java jvm options to apply (eg. -Xmx512M).
OSMOSIS_OPTIONS - The osmosis options to apply (eg. -q or -plugin MyPluginLoaderClass).

COMPILATION
To perform a complete osmosis rebuild, the following command may be run from the osmosis root directory.

ant all

The "all" ant target performs all steps including creation of new distribution files, checkstyle analysis and unit tests.

Sometimes old files can be left hanging around causing problems.  It may be necessary to run the following command
to clean up any old files.

ant clean

If you wish to rebuild all artefacts without running unit tests, the following command may be used.

ant publish

HELP
Osmosis documentation is available at:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Osmosis

Please ask any questions, report any issues, or suggest enhancements using the Open Street Map talk or development mailing lists.