diff --git a/sbin/mountd/exports.5 b/sbin/mountd/exports.5
index 8b1694275f8c..4ff57b3e9ad3 100644
--- a/sbin/mountd/exports.5
+++ b/sbin/mountd/exports.5
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ Each line in the file
 (other than comment lines that begin with a #)
 specifies the mount point(s) and export flags within one local server
 filesystem for one or more hosts.
+A long line may be split over several lines by ending all but the
+last line with a backslash (\\).
 A host may be specified only once for each local filesystem on the
 server and there may be only one default entry for each server
 filesystem that applies to all other hosts.
diff --git a/usr.sbin/mountd/exports.5 b/usr.sbin/mountd/exports.5
index 8b1694275f8c..4ff57b3e9ad3 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/mountd/exports.5
+++ b/usr.sbin/mountd/exports.5
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ Each line in the file
 (other than comment lines that begin with a #)
 specifies the mount point(s) and export flags within one local server
 filesystem for one or more hosts.
+A long line may be split over several lines by ending all but the
+last line with a backslash (\\).
 A host may be specified only once for each local filesystem on the
 server and there may be only one default entry for each server
 filesystem that applies to all other hosts.