diff --git a/doc/bird.sgml b/doc/bird.sgml
index 3ccbd5e3..c070be12 100644
--- a/doc/bird.sgml
+++ b/doc/bird.sgml
@@ -525,13 +525,13 @@ incompatible with each other (that is to prevent you from shooting in the foot).
 
 	<tag/bgpmask/
 	  BGP masks are patterns used for BGP path matching
-	  (using <cf>path &tilde; /2 3 5 ?/</cf> syntax). The masks
+	  (using <cf>path &tilde; |2 3 5 *|</cf> syntax). The masks
 	  resemble wildcard patterns as used by UNIX shells. Autonomous
-	  system numbers match themselves, <cf/?/ matches any (even empty)
-	  sequence of arbitrary AS numbers (<cf/*/ hasn't been chosen, because
-	  <cf>/*</cf> starts a comment). For example:
-	  <tt>/4 3 2 1/ &tilde; /? 4 3 ?/</tt> is true, but 
-	  <tt>/4 3 2 1/ &tilde; /? 4 5 ?/</tt> is false.
+	  system numbers match themselves, <cf/*/ matches any (even empty)
+	  sequence of arbitrary AS numbers. For example:
+	  <tt>|4 3 2 1| &tilde; |? 4 3 *|</tt> is true, but 
+	  <tt>|4 3 2 1| &tilde; |? 4 5 *|</tt> is false.
+	  There is also old syntax that uses / instead of | and ? instead of *.
 	<tag/clist/ 
 	  Community list is similar to set of pairs,
 	  except that unlike other sets, it can be modified.
@@ -875,7 +875,7 @@ protocol bgp {
 			bgp_community.add((65000,5678));
 			# Artificially increase path length
 			# by advertising local AS number twice
-			if bgp_path ~ / 65000 / then	  
+			if bgp_path ~ | 65000 | then	  
 				bgp_path.prepend(65000);  
 			accept;
 		}