diff --git a/.how_to_build_from_scratch b/.how_to_build_from_scratch
index 48972cba1168e1f68402a8dfb6bb431a843ed732..f6ec60894dd432446ffe31c1244aa385fa748205 100644
--- a/.how_to_build_from_scratch
+++ b/.how_to_build_from_scratch
@@ -1,5 +1,16 @@
 Glad you found this file :)
 
+The toplevel makefile (in this directory, not the src directory)
+has all the magic you need to build pike directly from CVS. Just
+type 'make'.
+
+You will need autoconf, automake, gnu m4, bison, a C compiler
+and the GMP library. You probably also want to use GNU make and
+libz.
+
+If that doesn't work, or you like making things difficult for yourself,
+try the Old instructions:
+
 After checking out the files from CVS you will notice that some files
 are missing compared to a regular distribution... To bootstrap your
 Pike development environment you must do the following steps: