diff -r 07cfe9f5561b -r 5e75f8a49e20 Doc/library/functions.rst
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst	Fri Dec 06 12:57:40 2013 -0800
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst	Sat Dec 07 02:14:45 2013 +0200
@@ -193,9 +193,9 @@
 .. function:: compile(source, filename, mode, flags=0, dont_inherit=False, optimize=-1)
 
    Compile the *source* into a code or AST object.  Code objects can be executed
-   by :func:`exec` or :func:`eval`.  *source* can either be a string or an AST
-   object.  Refer to the :mod:`ast` module documentation for information on how
-   to work with AST objects.
+   by :func:`exec` or :func:`eval`.  *source* can either be a string, an AST
+   or a bytes object.  Refer to the :mod:`ast` module documentation for 
+   information on how to work with AST objects.
 
    The *filename* argument should give the file from which the code was read;
    pass some recognizable value if it wasn't read from a file (``'<string>'`` is
diff -r 07cfe9f5561b -r 5e75f8a49e20 Python/bltinmodule.c
--- a/Python/bltinmodule.c	Fri Dec 06 12:57:40 2013 -0800
+++ b/Python/bltinmodule.c	Sat Dec 07 02:14:45 2013 +0200
@@ -695,7 +695,8 @@
 PyDoc_STRVAR(compile_doc,
 "compile(source, filename, mode[, flags[, dont_inherit]]) -> code object\n\
 \n\
-Compile the source string (a Python module, statement or expression)\n\
+Compile 'source', which can be a string (a Python module,\n\
+statement or expression), an AST or a bytes object,\n\
 into a code object that can be executed by exec() or eval().\n\
 The filename will be used for run-time error messages.\n\
 The mode must be 'exec' to compile a module, 'single' to compile a\n\