diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f1f78910e9a..b8f4262ca5c 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -209,6 +209,14 @@ Before submitting your changes, run the test suite to make sure that nothing is
 ./gradlew check
 ```
 
+If your changes affect only the documentation, run:
+
+```sh
+./gradlew -p docs check
+```
+For more information about testing code examples in the documentation, see 
+https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/master/docs/README.asciidoc
+
 ### Project layout
 
 This repository is split into many top level directories. The most important
diff --git a/docs/README.asciidoc b/docs/README.asciidoc
index 2963359d44c..766aeae0c5d 100644
--- a/docs/README.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/README.asciidoc
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@ See: https://github.com/elastic/docs
 Snippets marked with `// CONSOLE` are automatically annotated with "VIEW IN
 CONSOLE" and "COPY AS CURL" in the documentation and are automatically tested
 by the command `gradle :docs:check`. To test just the docs from a single page,
-use e.g. `gradle :docs:check -Dtests.method="*rollover*"`.
+use e.g. `gradle :docs:check -Dtests.method="\*rollover*"`.
+
+NOTE: If you have an elasticsearch-extra folder alongside your elasticsearch folder, you must temporarily rename it when you are testing 6.3 or later branches. 
 
 By default each `// CONSOLE` snippet runs as its own isolated test. You can
 manipulate the test execution in the following ways: