diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index d2705d3a44d..a8c3cd5a8e6 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -671,6 +671,13 @@ for its Lisp files by giving values for 'make' variables as part of
 the command.  See the section below called 'MAKE VARIABLES' for more
 information on this.

+If the directories, 'make install' copies the files to, are not writable
+with your own permissions, you might prefer calling 'sudo make install'.
+Note, that this command checks the completeness of all needed files; if
+there are missing files they will be generated by internal invocations
+of 'make'.  In order to avoid files with root ownership in your
+installation directories, you should always call 'make; sudo make install'.
+
 7) Check the file 'dir' in your site's info directory (usually
 /usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
 Emacs info files.