diff --git a/documentation/ref-manual/ref-structure.xml b/documentation/ref-manual/ref-structure.xml
index be292eb136..93cd45d456 100644
--- a/documentation/ref-manual/ref-structure.xml
+++ b/documentation/ref-manual/ref-structure.xml
@@ -762,6 +762,20 @@
             within <filename>WORKDIR/packages-split/</filename>.
         </para>
     </section>
+
+    <section id='structure-build-work-shared'>
+        <title><filename>build/tmp/work-shared/</filename></title>
+
+        <para>
+            For efficiency, the OpenEmbedded build system creates and uses
+            this directory to hold recipes that share a work directory with
+            other recipes.
+            In practice, this is only used for <filename>gcc</filename>
+            and its variants (e.g. <filename>gcc-cross</filename>,
+            <filename>libgcc</filename>, <filename>gcc-runtime</filename>,
+            and so forth).
+        </para>
+    </section>
 </section>
 
 <section id='structure-meta'>