diff --git a/libs/temporal/test2.cc b/libs/temporal/test2.cc
index ab7d9eeadb..2b6596e25d 100644
--- a/libs/temporal/test2.cc
+++ b/libs/temporal/test2.cc
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+/* standalone compile, from within this directory:
+
+   g++ `pkg-config --cflags --libs libxml-2.0` `pkg-config --cflags --libs glibmm-2.4` -I../pbd -I../../build/libs/pbd  -I. -o test2 test2.cc
+
+*/
+
 #include <atomic>
 #include <bitset>
 #include <iostream>