Issue #13557: Clarify effect of giving two different namespaces to exec or
execfile().
diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst
index 54baecf..a324e51 100644
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst
@@ -430,7 +430,10 @@
The arguments are a file name and two optional dictionaries. The file is parsed
and evaluated as a sequence of Python statements (similarly to a module) using
the *globals* and *locals* dictionaries as global and local namespace. If
- provided, *locals* can be any mapping object.
+ provided, *locals* can be any mapping object. Remember that at module level,
+ globals and locals are the same dictionary. If two separate objects are
+ passed as *globals* and *locals*, the code will be executed as if it were
+ embedded in a class definition.
.. versionchanged:: 2.4
formerly *locals* was required to be a dictionary.
diff --git a/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst b/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst
index 05b78a0..ce22b67 100644
--- a/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst
+++ b/Doc/reference/simple_stmts.rst
@@ -993,6 +993,9 @@
it should be a dictionary, which will be used for both the global and the local
variables. If two expressions are given, they are used for the global and local
variables, respectively. If provided, *locals* can be any mapping object.
+Remember that at module level, globals and locals are the same dictionary. If
+two separate objects are given as *globals* and *locals*, the code will be
+executed as if it were embedded in a class definition.
.. versionchanged:: 2.4
Formerly, *locals* was required to be a dictionary.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index c5e2e92..52439fe 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -284,7 +284,9 @@
- Issue #14437: Fix building the _io module under Cygwin.
Documentation
--------------
+
+- Issue #13557: Clarify effect of giving two different namespaces to exec or
+ execfile().
- Issue #14034: added the argparse tutorial.