diff --git a/src/syncterm/COMPILING b/src/syncterm/COMPILING
index 86d9b8d8df14b2d0e9d333bf910ad5fb99fe4f73..7f825f06a91e83dbe32d551d86228aeb610e95e5 100644
--- a/src/syncterm/COMPILING
+++ b/src/syncterm/COMPILING
@@ -23,6 +23,14 @@ this in place, a simple "make" should build everything you need.  If you're
 using *nix you must use GNU Make... under some systems (Such a most BSDs) this
 is optional and installed as "gmake" rather than "make".
 
+When building from the source archive, need to set SRC_ROOT to the extracted
+path name to locate the bundled 3rd party sources like so:
+make SRC_ROOT=/path/to/syncterm-20120226
+This can be done using backticks as well:
+make SRC_ROOT=`cd .. ; pwd`
+or:
+make SRC_ROOT=`realpath ..`
+
 Refer to src/build/Common.gmake or src/build/Common.bmake for details of some
 of the make options the build system supports.