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+1) Customize /etc/aide.conf to your liking. In particular, add
+   important directories and files which you would like to be
+   covered by integrity checks. Avoid files which are expected
+   to change frequently or which don't affect the safety of your
+   system.
+
+2) Run "/usr/sbin/aide --init" to build the initial database.
+   With the default setup, that creates /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new.gz
+
+3) Store /etc/aide.conf, /usr/sbin/aide and /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new.gz
+   in a secure location, e.g. on separate read-only media (such as
+   CD-ROM). Alternatively, keep MD5 fingerprints or GPG signatures
+   of those files in a secure location, so you have means to verify
+   that nobody modified those files.
+
+4) Copy /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new.gz to /var/lib/aide/aide.db.gz
+   which is the location of the input database.
+
+5) Run "/usr/sbin/aide --check" to check your system for inconsistencies
+   compared with the AIDE database. Prior to running a check manually,
+   ensure that the AIDE binary and database have not been modified
+   without your knowledge.
+   
+   Caution! 
+   
+   With the default setup, an AIDE check is not run periodically as a
+   cron job. It cannot be guaranteed that the AIDE binaries, config
+   file and database are intact. It is not recommended that you run
+   automated AIDE checks without verifying AIDE yourself frequently.
+   In addition to that, AIDE does not implement any password or
+   encryption protection for its own files.
+   
+   It is up to you how to put a file integrity checker to good effect
+   and how to set up automated checks if you think it adds a level of
+   safety (e.g. detecting failed/incomplete compromises or unauthorized
+   modification of special files). On a compromised system, the
+   intruder could disable the automated check. Or he could replace the
+   AIDE binary, config file and database easily when they are not
+   located on read-only media. 
+