diff --git a/bootstrap b/bootstrap
index 9fd3866e1..d5a808e8e 100755
--- a/bootstrap
+++ b/bootstrap
@@ -2,3 +2,7 @@ aclocal \
 && autoheader \
 && automake --foreign --add-missing --copy \
 && autoconf
+
+# AM_MAINTAINER_MODE requires SVN users provide --enable-maintainer-mode
+# otherwise the documentation will fail to build due to missing version.texi
+echo "Bootstrap complete; you can './configure --enable-maintainer-mode ....'"