diff --git a/BUILDING.txt b/BUILDING.txt
index de3d45bf512..b0a2740d663 100644
--- a/BUILDING.txt
+++ b/BUILDING.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Requirements:
 * Forrest 0.8 (if generating docs)
 * Findbugs 1.3.9 (if running findbugs)
 * ProtocolBuffer 2.4.1+ (for MapReduce and HDFS)
-* Autotools (if compiling native code)
+* CMake 2.6 or newer (if compiling native code)
 * Internet connection for first build (to fetch all Maven and Hadoop dependencies)
 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 1204fbec492..19e5729b03b 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -66,6 +66,9 @@ Release 2.0.1-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
     HADOOP-8466. hadoop-client POM incorrectly excludes avro. (bmahe via tucu)
 
+    HADOOP-8481. update BUILDING.txt to talk about cmake rather than autotools.
+    (Colin Patrick McCabe via eli)
+
 Release 2.0.0-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES