diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2e7ab6f67..366da9ad9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -28,9 +28,9 @@ $ mvn clean package -DskipTests
 ## Running mango
 mango is packaged via [appassembler](http://mojo.codehaus.org/appassembler/appassembler-maven-plugin/) and includes all necessary dependencies.
 
-Running an example script:
+Running an example script locally:
 ```
-From the main folder of mango, run ./example-files/run-example.sh to see a demonstration of chromosome 17, region 7500000-7515000.
+From the main folder of mango, run ./example-files/run-local.sh to see a demonstration of chromosome 17, region 7500000-7515000.
 ```
 For help launching the script, run `bin/mango-submit -h`
 ````
@@ -63,4 +63,10 @@ Using SPARK_SUBMIT=/Applications/spark-1.6.1-bin-hadoop2.4/bin/spark-submit
 View the visualization at: 8080
 Quit at: /quit
 ```
+
+Running an example script on hdfs:
+```
+From the main folder of mango, run ./example-files/run-hdfs.sh to see a demonstration of chromosome 17, region 7500000-7515000.
+```
+
 Note that for logging, you must use the /quit url for the log to be produced.
diff --git a/example-files/run-hdfs.sh b/example-files/run-hdfs.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..84791d748
--- /dev/null
+++ b/example-files/run-hdfs.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# get current local directory
+DIR=$( cd $( dirname ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} ) && pwd )
+hdfs dfs -put ${DIR}
+
+bin/mango-submit ${DIR}/hg19.17.2bit \
+-genes http://www.biodalliance.org/datasets/ensGene.bb \
+-reads example-files/chr17.7500000-7515000.bam.adam \
+-variants example-files/ALL.chr17.7500000-7515000.phase3_shapeit2_mvncall_integrated_v5a.20130502.genotypes.vcf \
+-show_genotypes \
+-discover \
+-port 8080
diff --git a/example-files/run-example.sh b/example-files/run-local.sh
similarity index 52%
rename from example-files/run-example.sh
rename to example-files/run-local.sh
index a6640fc6f..c1c68bc70 100755
--- a/example-files/run-example.sh
+++ b/example-files/run-local.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
-bin/mango-submit ./example-files/hg19.17.2bit \
+# get current local directory
+DIR=$( cd $( dirname ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} ) && pwd )
+
+# reference 2 bit does not need 'file:' because it is only read from the master
+bin/mango-submit ${DIR}/hg19.17.2bit \
 -genes http://www.biodalliance.org/datasets/ensGene.bb \
 -reads ./example-files/chr17.7500000-7515000.sam.adam \
 -variants ./example-files/ALL.chr17.7500000-7515000.phase3_shapeit2_mvncall_integrated_v5a.20130502.genotypes.vcf \
 -show_genotypes \
--discover
+-discover \
+-port 8080