+manpagesection(CONFIG DIRECTIVES)
+
+There are currently two config directives available that allow a config file to
+incorporate the contents of other files: bf(&include) and bf(&merge). Both
+allow a reference to either a file or a directory. They differ in how
+segregated the file's contents are considered to be.
+
+The bf(&include) directive treats each file as more distinct, with each one
+inheriting the defaults of the parent file, starting the parameter parsing
+as globals/defaults, and leaving the defaults unchanged for the parsing of
+the rest of the parent file.
+
+The bf(&merge) directive, on the other hand, treats the file's contents as
+if it were simply inserted in place of the directive, and thus it can set
+parameters in a module started in another file, can affect the defaults for
+other files, etc.
+
+When an bf(&include) or bf(&merge) directive refers to a directory, it will read
+in all the bf(*.conf) files contained inside that directory (without any
+recursive scanning), with the files sorted into alpha order. So, if you have a
+directory named "rsyncd.d" with the files "foo.conf", "bar.conf", and
+"baz.conf" inside it, this directive:
+
+verb( &include /path/rsyncd.d )
+
+would be the same as this set of directives:
+
+verb( &include /path/rsyncd.d/bar.conf
+ &include /path/rsyncd.d/baz.conf
+ &include /path/rsyncd.d/foo.conf )
+
+except that it adjusts as files are added and removed from the directory.
+
+The advantage of the bf(&include) directive is that you can define one or more
+modules in a separate file without worrying about unintended side-effects
+between the self-contained module files. For instance, this is a useful
+/etc/rsyncd.conf file:
+
+verb( port = 873
+ log file = /var/log/rsync.log
+ pid file = /var/lock/rsync.lock
+
+ &include /etc/rsyncd.d )
+
+The advantage of the bf(&merge) directive is that you can load config snippets
+that can be included into multiple module definitions.
+