diff --git a/documentation/poky-ref-manual/ref-variables.xml b/documentation/poky-ref-manual/ref-variables.xml
index 0f6b60358b..1a958773b9 100644
--- a/documentation/poky-ref-manual/ref-variables.xml
+++ b/documentation/poky-ref-manual/ref-variables.xml
@@ -72,6 +72,31 @@
             </glossdef>
         </glossentry>
 
+        <glossentry id='var-BBMASK'><glossterm>BBMASK</glossterm>
+            <glossdef>
+                <para>Prevents BitBake from processing recipes and recipe append files.
+                    You can use the <filename>BBMASK</filename> variable to "hide" 
+                    these <filename>.bb</filename> and <filename>.bbappend</filename> files.
+                    BitBake ignores any recipe or recipe append files that match the expression.
+                    It is as if BitBake does not see them at all.
+                    Consequently, matching files are not parsed or otherwise used by 
+                    BitBake.</para>
+                <para>The value you provide is passed to python's regular expression compiler.
+                    For complete syntax information, see python's documentation at 
+                    <ulink url='http://docs.python.org/release/2.3/lib/re-syntax.html'></ulink>.
+                    The expression is compared against the full paths to the files. 
+                    For example, the following uses a complete regular expression to tell
+                    BitBake to ignore all recipe and recipe append files in the 
+                    <filename>.*/meta-ti/recipes-misc/</filename> directory:
+                    <literallayout class='monospaced'>
+     BBMASK = ".*/meta-ti/recipes-misc/"
+                    </literallayout></para>
+                <para>Use the <filename>BBMASK</filename> variable from within the 
+                    <filename>conf/local.conf</filename> file found 
+                    in the Yocto Project build directory.</para>
+            </glossdef>
+        </glossentry>
+
         <glossentry id='var-BB_NUMBER_THREADS'><glossterm>BB_NUMBER_THREADS</glossterm>
             <glossdef>
                 <para>The maximum number of tasks BitBake should run in parallel at any one time.