diff --git a/doc/man/man1/salloc.1 b/doc/man/man1/salloc.1
index 0beb4402fdafe71f7238e46298bcb56b04a9c96f..9a72020a667c41d0d03c462c3e3f8248ffad9549 100644
--- a/doc/man/man1/salloc.1
+++ b/doc/man/man1/salloc.1
@@ -567,8 +567,13 @@ Inside the hostfile must contain at minimum the number of hosts
 requested and be one per line or comma separated.  If specifying a
 task count (\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-ntasks\fR=<\fInumber\fR>), your tasks
 will be laid out on the nodes in the order of the file.
-.TP
+.br
+\fBNOTE:\fR The arbitrary distribution option on a job allocation only
+controls the nodes to be allocated to the job and not the allocation of
+CPUs on those nodes. This option is meant primarily to control a job step's
+task layout in an existing job allocation for the srun command.
 
+.TP
 Second distribution method:
 .TP
 .B block
diff --git a/doc/man/man1/sbatch.1 b/doc/man/man1/sbatch.1
index c5fcafbb5fe27d7e965211623eafccc4ed9caa4e..28c3f54474720ee3c5ef54926d5b4cbc73eb1b22 100644
--- a/doc/man/man1/sbatch.1
+++ b/doc/man/man1/sbatch.1
@@ -631,8 +631,13 @@ Inside the hostfile must contain at minimum the number of hosts
 requested and be one per line or comma separated.  If specifying a
 task count (\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-ntasks\fR=<\fInumber\fR>), your tasks
 will be laid out on the nodes in the order of the file.
-.TP
+.br
+\fBNOTE:\fR The arbitrary distribution option on a job allocation only
+controls the nodes to be allocated to the job and not the allocation of
+CPUs on those nodes. This option is meant primarily to control a job step's
+task layout in an existing job allocation for the srun command.
 
+.TP
 Second distribution method:
 .TP
 .B block
diff --git a/doc/man/man1/srun.1 b/doc/man/man1/srun.1
index 85b8bfab46eabb3fb4d615339222ae7f194da61f..a69fbbd2ade9b84cd54b2c17531265af609a393d 100644
--- a/doc/man/man1/srun.1
+++ b/doc/man/man1/srun.1
@@ -625,8 +625,13 @@ Inside the hostfile must contain at minimum the number of hosts
 requested and be one per line or comma separated.  If specifying a
 task count (\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-ntasks\fR=<\fInumber\fR>), your tasks
 will be laid out on the nodes in the order of the file.
-.TP
+.br
+\fBNOTE:\fR The arbitrary distribution option on a job allocation only
+controls the nodes to be allocated to the job and not the allocation of
+CPUs on those nodes. This option is meant primarily to control a job step's
+task layout in an existing job allocation for the srun command.
 
+.TP
 Second distribution method:
 .TP
 .B block