diff --git a/.cvsignore b/.cvsignore
index d908ae0..8c9729c 100644
--- a/.cvsignore
+++ b/.cvsignore
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
+aclocal.m4
 Makefile
 Makefile.in
-aclocal.m4
 config.cache
 config.h
 config.h.in
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 3453bae..d06058a 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -363,6 +363,7 @@ fc-cache/Makefile
 fc-list/Makefile
 doc/Makefile
 doc/version.sgml
+doc/confdir.sgml
 test/Makefile
 fontconfig.spec
 fontconfig.pc
diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
index 4a72f39..f501810 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/Makefile.am
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ if ENABLE_DOCS
 
 $(man_MANS): func.refs
 
-func.refs: fontconfig-devel.sgml $(DOC_FUNCS_SGML) version.sgml
+func.refs: fontconfig-devel.sgml $(DOC_FUNCS_SGML) version.sgml confdir.sgml
 	$(RM) func.refs
 	$(DOC2MAN) fontconfig-devel.sgml
 	mv manpage.refs func.refs
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ func.refs: fontconfig-devel.sgml $(DOC_FUNCS_SGML) version.sgml
 
 $(DOC_FUNCS_SGML): edit-sgml $(FNCS_TMPL)
 
-fonts-conf.5: fontconfig-user.sgml version.sgml
+fonts-conf.5: fontconfig-user.sgml version.sgml confdir.sgml
 	$(RM) file.refs
 	$(DOC2MAN) fontconfig-user.sgml
 	$(RM) manpage.refs manpage.links
@@ -124,16 +124,16 @@ clean-local:
 	$(RM) $(man_MANS) $(DOC_FILES) $(DOC_FUNCS_SGML) func.refs
 	$(RM) -r $(DOC_DIRS)
 
-fontconfig-devel: fontconfig-devel.sgml $(DOCS_FUNCS_SGML) version.sgml
+fontconfig-devel: fontconfig-devel.sgml $(DOCS_FUNCS_SGML) version.sgml confdir.sgml
 	$(RM) -r fontconfig-devel
 	$(DOC2HTML) -o fontconfig-devel fontconfig-devel.sgml
 
-fontconfig-devel.txt: fontconfig-devel.sgml version.sgml
+fontconfig-devel.txt: fontconfig-devel.sgml version.sgml confdir.sgml
 
-fontconfig-user.html: fontconfig-user.sgml version.sgml
+fontconfig-user.html: fontconfig-user.sgml version.sgml confdir.sgml
 	$(DOC2HTML) -u fontconfig-user.sgml
 
-fontconfig-user.txt:  fontconfig-user.sgml version.sgml
+fontconfig-user.txt:  fontconfig-user.sgml version.sgml confdir.sgml
 else
 all-local:
 clean-local:
diff --git a/doc/fontconfig-user.sgml b/doc/fontconfig-user.sgml
index d5c4be8..450be52 100644
--- a/doc/fontconfig-user.sgml
+++ b/doc/fontconfig-user.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
 <!ENTITY version SYSTEM "version.sgml">
+<!ENTITY confdir SYSTEM "confdir.sgml">
 ]>
 <!--
     $Id$
@@ -35,8 +36,8 @@
 </refnamediv>
 <refsynopsisdiv>
 <synopsis>
-   /etc/fonts/fonts.conf
-   /etc/fonts/fonts.dtd
+   &confdir;/fonts.conf
+   &confdir;/fonts.dtd
    ~/.fonts.conf
 </synopsis>
 </refsynopsisdiv>
@@ -231,7 +232,7 @@ a text editor.
   </para><para>
 The fontconfig document type definition resides in the external entity
 "fonts.dtd"; this is normally stored in the default font configuration
-directory (/etc/fonts).  Each configuration file should contain the
+directory (&confdir;).  Each configuration file should contain the
 following structure:
     <programlisting>
 	&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;
@@ -404,7 +405,7 @@ This is an example of a system-wide configuration file
     <programlisting>
 &lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;
 &lt;!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"&gt;
-&lt;!-- /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file to configure system font access --&gt;
+&lt;!-- &confdir;/fonts.conf file to configure system font access --&gt;
 &lt;fontconfig&gt;
 &lt;!-- 
 	Find fonts in these directories