docs: convert README to markdown, add ChangeLog and .gitignore

- Convert README to README.md with proper markdown formatting
- Add ChangeLog.md for release notes
- Add .gitignore to exclude build artifacts

Author: cnangel

.gitignore

@@ -3,3 +3,9 @@ pylibconfig.egg-info
 *.bak
 *.swp
 *.pyc
+build/
+dist/
+*.so
+*.conf
+*.deb
+build_*/

ChangeLog.md

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# ChangeLog
+
+## [0.2.1] — 2026-05-16
+
+### Fixed
+- Fix version guards for multi-version libconfig compatibility (1.1.x ~ 1.8.x)
+- Fix `isString()` implementation to use `getType()` instead of non-existent API
+
+## [0.2.0] — 2026-05-15
+
+### Added
+- Upgrade to support libconfig 1.1.x ~ 1.8.x
+- Export `Setting` class with full API
+- Add type-safe lookup methods (`lookupInt`, `lookupString`, `lookupFloat`, `lookupBool`, `lookupInt64`)
+- Add options API (`setOption`, `getOption`, `setOptions`, `getOptions`)
+- Add format control (`setDefaultFormat`, `getDefaultFormat`)
+- Add `setFloatPrecision`, `setTabWidth`, `setAutoConvert`, `clear`
+- Export type/format/option constants
+- Add GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows
+
+### Changed
+- Use `setValue` with Python type introspection dispatching
+
+### Fixed
+- Fix `children()` shadowed declaration
+- Fix `setValue` type dispatch for unsigned int
+- Fix `add*` methods with empty path (use root setting)
+
+## [0.0.4] — 2016-02-28
+
+### Added
+- Add `addList` support
+
+## [0.0.3] — 2015-08-15
+
+### Added
+- Add `readString()` support with libconfig version checking
+
+## [0.0.2] — 2014-06-10
+
+### Fixed
+- Fix boost_python library detection (default to libraries if not found)
+- Fix Linux Mint 16 + Python 2.7 compatibility
+- Fix Fedora 20 build
+
+## [0.0.1] — 2010-04-16
+
+### Added
+- Initial release
+- Basic `Config` bindings via Boost.Python
+- Read/write/add/setValue/value operations
+- DEB and RPM packaging

README

@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+# python-libconfig
+
+Python bindings to the C++ library libconfig (1.1.x ~ 1.8.x)
+
+## Installation
+
+First install libconfig and its development files.
+
+**Fedora/RHEL:**
+
+```sh
+dnf install libconfig libconfig-devel python3-devel boost-devel gcc-c++
+```
+
+**Debian/Ubuntu:**
+
+```sh
+apt-get install libconfig++-dev python3-dev libboost-python-dev g++
+```
+
+**openSUSE:**
+
+```sh
+zypper install libconfig-devel python3-devel boost-devel gcc-c++
+```
+(available in the Packman repository)
+
+On other platforms, compile libconfig from source:
+
+```sh
+wget http://www.hyperrealm.com/libconfig/libconfig-1.8.2.tar.gz
+tar -zxf libconfig-1.8.2.tar.gz
+cd libconfig-1.8.2
+export MYPREFIX=/usr
+# or if you lack privileges for making system-wide changes:
+# export MYPREFIX=$HOME/local
+./configure --prefix=$MYPREFIX
+make
+make install
+```
+
+To install this module, run the following commands:
+
+```sh
+python3 setup.py build
+python3 setup.py install
+```
+
+## Usage
+
+```python
+from pylibconfig import Config, TYPE_INT, TYPE_STRING, FORMAT_HEX
+
+cfg = Config()
+cfg.readFile("example.cfg")
+
+# Lookup with type-safe defaults
+name = cfg.lookupString("name", "unknown")
+port = cfg.lookupInt("port", 8080)
+
+# Setting objects
+root = cfg.getRoot()
+setting = cfg.lookup("server.host")
+print(setting.getName(), setting.getType(), setting.getPath())
+
+# Options (libconfig 1.8+)
+from pylibconfig import OPTION_FSYNC
+cfg.setOption(OPTION_FSYNC, True)
+
+# Format control
+from pylibconfig import FORMAT_HEX
+cfg.setDefaultFormat(FORMAT_HEX)
+```
+
+## Copyright and Licence
+
+Copyright (C) 2010-2026 Cnangel
+
+This program is released under the following license: bsd