diff --git a/bitbake/doc/user-manual/user-manual-metadata.xml b/bitbake/doc/user-manual/user-manual-metadata.xml
index 73238fd9e5..239390ac8d 100644
--- a/bitbake/doc/user-manual/user-manual-metadata.xml
+++ b/bitbake/doc/user-manual/user-manual-metadata.xml
@@ -579,10 +579,96 @@
For the 'deptask', 'rdeptask', 'depends', 'rdepends' and 'recrdeptask' flags please see the dependencies section.
+
+
+ Parsing and Execution
+
- Parsing
+ Parsing Overview
+
+
+ BitBake parses configuration files, classes, and
+ .bb files.
+
+
+
+ The first thing BitBake does is look for the
+ bitbake.conf file.
+ This file resides in the within the conf/
+ directory.
+ BitBake finds it by examining its BBPATH
+ environment variable and looking for the
+ conf/ directory.
+
+
+
+ The bitbake.conf file lists other configuration
+ files to include from a conf/ directory below the
+ directories listed in BBPATH.
+ In general, the most important configuration file from a user's perspective
+ is local.conf, which contains a user's
+ customized settings for the build environment.
+ Other notable configuration files are the distribution configuration
+ file (set by the DISTRO variable) and the machine
+ configuration file (set by the MACHINE variable).
+ The DISTRO and MACHINE BitBake
+ environment variables are both usually set in the
+ local.conf file.
+ Valid distribution configuration files are available
+ in the conf/distro/ directory and valid machine
+ configuration files in the meta/conf/machine/
+ directory.
+ Within the conf/machine/include/ directory are
+ various tune-*.inc configuration files
+ that provide common "tuning" settings specific to and shared between
+ particular architectures and machines.
+
+
+
+ After parsing of the configuration files, some standard classes are
+ included.
+ The base.bbclass file
+ is always included.
+ Other classes that are specified in the configuration using the
+ INHERIT variable are also included.
+ Class files are searched for in a classes subdirectory under
+ the paths in BBPATH in the same way as
+ configuration files.
+
+
+
+ After classes are included, the variable
+ BBFILES is set, usually in
+ local.conf, and defines the list of
+ places to search for .bb files.
+ Adding extra content to BBFILES is best
+ achieved through the use of BitBake layers as described in the
+ Layers section below.
+
+
+
+ BitBake parses each .bb file in
+ BBFILES and stores the values of various
+ variables.
+ In summary, for each .bb file the configuration
+ plus the base class of variables are set, followed by the data in the
+ .bb file itself, followed by any inherit commands
+ that .bb file might contain.
+
+
+
+ Because parsing .bb files is a time consuming
+ process, a cache is kept to speed up subsequent parsing.
+ This cache is invalid if the timestamp of the
+ .bb file itself changes, or if the timestamps of
+ any of the include, configuration files or class files on which
+ the .bb file depends change.
+
+
+
Configuration files
+
The first kind of metadata in BitBake is configuration metadata.
This metadata is global, and therefore affects all packages and