diff --git a/lib/molfile/Makefile.lammps b/lib/molfile/Makefile.lammps
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..08118991a0cfb0e0f130bbd8cebf06bcf5f64026
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+++ b/lib/molfile/Makefile.lammps
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+# This file contains the hooks to build and link LAMMPS with the VMD
+# molfile plugins described here:
+# 
+# http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/plugins/molfile
+# 
+# When you build LAMMPS with the USER-MOLFILE package installed, it will
+# use the 3 settings in this file.  They should be set as follows.
+# 
+# The molfile_SYSLIB setting is for a system dynamic loading library
+# that will be used to load the molfile plugins.  It contains functions
+# like dlopen(), dlsym() and so on for dynamic linking of executable
+# code into an executable.  For Linux and most current Unix-like
+# operating systems, the setting of "-ldl" will work.  On some platforms
+# you may need "-ldld".  For compilation on Windows, a different
+# mechanism is used that is part of the Windows programming environment
+# and thus molfile_SYSLIB can be left blank.
+# 
+# The molfile_SYSINC and molfile_SYSPATH variables do not typically need
+# to be set.  If the dl library is not in a place the linker can find
+# it, specify its directory via the molfile_SYSPATH variable, e.g.
+# -Ldir.
+
+# -----------------------------------------------------------
+
+# Settings that the LAMMPS build will import when this package is installed
+
+molfile_SYSINC =
+ifneq ($(LIBOBJDIR),/Obj_mingw32)
+ifneq ($(LIBOBJDIR),/Obj_mingw64)
+ifneq ($(LIBOBJDIR),/Obj_mingw32-mpi)
+ifneq ($(LIBOBJDIR),/Obj_mingw64-mpi)
+molfile_SYSLIB = -ldl
+endif
+endif
+endif
+endif
+molfile_SYSPATH =
diff --git a/lib/molfile/README b/lib/molfile/README
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..09ea3cc5c6fbc2f0849413e4df5abdd45b36a1ea
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+++ b/lib/molfile/README
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+This directory has a Makefile.lammps file with settings that allows
+LAMMPS to dynamically link to the VMD molfile library.  This is
+required to use the USER-MOLFILE package and its interface to the dump
+and write_dump commands in a LAMMPS input script.
+
+More information about the VMD molfile plugins can be found at
+http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/plugins/molfile.
+
+More specifically, to be able to dynamically load and execute the
+plugins from inside LAMMPS, you need to link with a system library
+containing functions like dlopen(), dlsym() and so on for dynamic
+linking of executable code into an executable.  This library is
+defined by setting the molfile_SYSLIB variable in the Makefile.lammps
+file in this dir.
+
+For Linux and most current unix-like operating systems, this can be
+kept at the default setting of "-ldl" (on some platforms this library
+is called "-ldld").  For compilation on Windows, a slightly different
+mechanism is used that is part of the Windows programming environment
+and this library is not needed.
+
+See the header of Makefile.lammps for more info.