diff --git a/gcc/ChangeLog b/gcc/ChangeLog
index 0a6a908ce64..2df466298fe 100644
--- a/gcc/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2004-03-02  Mark Mitchell  <mark@codesourcery.com>
+
+	* doc/c-tree.texi (DECL_ASSEMBLER_NAME): Mention that using this
+	macro results in memory allocation.
+
 2004-03-02  David O'Brien  <obrien@FreeBSD.org>
 
 	* config/freebsd-spec.h (FBSD_DYNAMIC_LINKER): Add.
diff --git a/gcc/doc/c-tree.texi b/gcc/doc/c-tree.texi
index d1afe655c76..8cd059e3e5c 100644
--- a/gcc/doc/c-tree.texi
+++ b/gcc/doc/c-tree.texi
@@ -1105,6 +1105,13 @@ platform, it is the responsibility of the back end to perform those
 modifications.  (Of course, the back end should not modify
 @code{DECL_ASSEMBLER_NAME} itself.)
 
+Using @code{DECL_ASSEMBLER_NAME} will cause additional memory to be
+allocated (for the mangled name of the entity) so it should be used
+only when emitting assembly code.  It should not be used within the
+optimizers to determine whether or not two declarations are the same,
+even though some of the existing optimizers do use it in that way.
+These uses will be removed over time.
+
 @item DECL_EXTERNAL
 This predicate holds if the function is undefined.