diff -r 052fda48962b Doc/library/socketserver.rst
--- a/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Sat Sep 25 15:30:03 2010 +0200
+++ b/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Sun Sep 26 11:26:49 2010 +0200
@@ -148,13 +148,16 @@
 
 .. method:: BaseServer.serve_forever(poll_interval=0.5)
 
-   Handle requests until an explicit :meth:`shutdown` request.  Polls for
-   shutdown every *poll_interval* seconds.
+   Handle requests until an explicit :meth:`shutdown` request.  
+   Poll for shutdown every *poll_interval* seconds. Ignores :attr:`self.timeout`. 
+   If you need to do periodic tasks, do them in another thread.
 
 
 .. method:: BaseServer.shutdown()
 
-   Tells the :meth:`serve_forever` loop to stop and waits until it does.
+   Tell the :meth:`serve_forever` loop to stop and wait until it does.
+   This method must be called after :meth:`serve_forever` has started and 
+   is running in another thread, or this call will deadlock.
 
 
 .. attribute:: BaseServer.address_family