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diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
index 284e7e198e93..2075c0658bf5 100644
--- a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
@@ -101,16 +101,20 @@ The format of the block comment is like this:
/**
* function_name(:)? (- short description)?
-(* @parameterx: (description of parameter x)?)*
+(* @parameterx(space)*: (description of parameter x)?)*
(* a blank line)?
* (Description:)? (Description of function)?
* (section header: (section description)? )*
(*)?*/
-The short function description cannot be multiline, but the other
-descriptions can be (and they can contain blank lines). Avoid putting a
-spurious blank line after the function name, or else the description will
-be repeated!
+The short function description ***cannot be multiline***, but the other
+descriptions can be (and they can contain blank lines). If you continue
+that initial short description onto a second line, that second line will
+appear further down at the beginning of the description section, which is
+almost certainly not what you had in mind.
+
+Avoid putting a spurious blank line after the function name, or else the
+description will be repeated!
All descriptive text is further processed, scanning for the following special
patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
@@ -121,6 +125,31 @@ patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
'@parameter' - name of a parameter
'%CONST' - name of a constant.
+NOTE 1: The multi-line descriptive text you provide does *not* recognize
+line breaks, so if you try to format some text nicely, as in:
+
+ Return codes
+ 0 - cool
+ 1 - invalid arg
+ 2 - out of memory
+
+this will all run together and produce:
+
+ Return codes 0 - cool 1 - invalid arg 2 - out of memory
+
+NOTE 2: If the descriptive text you provide has lines that begin with
+some phrase followed by a colon, each of those phrases will be taken as
+a new section heading, which means you should similarly try to avoid text
+like:
+
+ Return codes:
+ 0: cool
+ 1: invalid arg
+ 2: out of memory
+
+every line of which would start a new section. Again, probably not
+what you were after.
+
Take a look around the source tree for examples.