diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 257713ff9b9e5d553a0f3a46439c8550f6967765..6fc508bf5b79979170c4be06e15115a465a15e58 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -396,7 +396,8 @@ CVS code -
 	  v?snprintf(), and add minor formatting changes.
 	- Mention the requirement for groff in order to create html
 	  versions of the manpages. (DLR)
-	- Update the given cvs commands so that they work again. (DLR)
+	- Update the given cvs commands so that they work again, and
+	  mention the need for ssh to do cvs checkouts. (DLR)
 - faq.html:
 	- Fixed inaccuracy: Pico compatibility mode was made the default
 	  in nano 1.1.99pre1, not 1.2.2. (DLR)
diff --git a/README.CVS b/README.CVS
index 14e835b041e6a5b1a26120a37be9622fabd4ab58..eba0c6a5a36d2960a0dfebcea55f3c710e30baaf 100644
--- a/README.CVS
+++ b/README.CVS
@@ -13,12 +13,19 @@ packages:
 - groff
 - texinfo
 - cvs
+- ssh (with support for the SSH version 2 protocol)
 - glib 2.x (if your system doesn't have snprintf() and/or vsnprintf())
 - make, gcc and the normal development libraries (ncurses, etc.)
 
 These should be available on your GNU mirror.
 
-To download the CVS tree, execute the following command:
+First, you need to set up cvs to download the CVS tree using ssh.  If
+you're using a Bourne shell (e.g. bash), do
+$ export CVS_RSH=ssh
+If you're using a C shell (e.g. tcsh or csh), do
+$ setenv CVS_RSH ssh
+
+After it's set up, use the following command to download the CVS tree:
 $ cvs -z3 -d:ext:anoncvs@savannah.gnu.org:/cvsroot/nano checkout nano
 
 If you want to download the stable CVS branch, add "-r nano_1_0_branch":