diff --git a/src/README b/src/README
index 74b6ec9297..cf17222636 100644
--- a/src/README
+++ b/src/README
@@ -171,10 +171,12 @@ the Unix instructions below, but note the following:
 
     If the installation fails because the target directory cannot be
     created, or because the target directory is not the one you
-    wanted, then you can run `configure' again with a new --prefix
-    value, then try step 3 again. After changing the --prefix value,
-    it is sometimes not necessary to repeat steps 1 or 2. (Try it and
-    find out...)
+    wanted, then you can try repeating step 3 after runing `configure'
+    again with a new --prefix value. That is, sometimes it is not
+    necessary to repeat steps 1 or 2 (so try it and find out). On
+    other platforms and configurations, it is necessary to start with
+    a clean build directory when changing the --prefix value, because
+    the path gets wired into shared objects.
 
     If you build frequently from the Subversion-based sources, beware
     that you may accumulate user- and version-specific information in