diff --git a/doc/grep.in.1 b/doc/grep.in.1

index 5a1e3ea..3f633ea 100644

--- a/doc/grep.in.1

+++ b/doc/grep.in.1

@@ -478,6 +478,7 @@ Search only files whose base name matches

 .BR \-r ", " \-\^\-recursive

 Read all files under each directory, recursively,

 following symbolic links only if they are on the command line.

+Note that if no file operand is given, grep searches the working directory.

 This is equivalent to the

 .B "\-d recurse"

 option.

diff --git a/doc/grep.texi b/doc/grep.texi

index da9a1be..63016bd 100644

--- a/doc/grep.texi

+++ b/doc/grep.texi

@@ -698,6 +698,7 @@ For each directory operand,

 read and process all files in that directory, recursively.

 Follow symbolic links on the command line, but skip symlinks

 that are encountered recursively.

+Note that if no file operand is given, grep searches the working directory.

 This is the same as the @samp{--directories=recurse} option.

 @item -R