diff --git a/doc/manual.rst b/doc/manual.rst
index d4877514a..8ed98ce13 100644
--- a/doc/manual.rst
+++ b/doc/manual.rst
@@ -574,6 +574,11 @@ and the same timestamps.
 
 If there is a **bind-mount** below a directory that is to be saved, restic descends into it.
 
+**Device files** are saved and restored as device files. This means that e.g. ``/dev/sda`` is
+archived as a block device file and restored as such. This also means that the content of the
+corresponding disk is not read, at least not from the device file.
+
+
 Reading data from stdin
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~