diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index fc0c13c1ca3a3a8a31870a277243c1cb878353ca..d839295f630153b3c4b09e4d08ec920f2382b258 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ TMPDIR = .repo_tmp
 	rm -rf $(TMPDIR)
 	git ls-files -d | xargs git checkout --
 
+# Create a git repo from an unpacked source directory.
 repo: .git
 
 
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 9af0c2424bb314bebc6dd3d4c75dfbbc541e8501..fe4b5958a18924f9f61343813bd60d4fdb4a6ee5 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -51,8 +51,9 @@ Get the full source history:
 
 Note that Cython used to ship the full version control repository in its source
 distribution, but no longer does so due to space constraints.  To get the
-full source history, make sure you have git installed, then step into the
-base directory of the Cython source distribution and type::
+full source history from a downloaded source archive, make sure you have git
+installed, then step into the base directory of the Cython source distribution
+and type::
 
     make repo