diff --git a/Lib/re.py b/Lib/re.py
index 951f239..63a95fd 100644
--- a/Lib/re.py
+++ b/Lib/re.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
     "|"      A|B, creates an RE that will match either A or B.
     (...)    Matches the RE inside the parentheses.
              The contents can be retrieved or matched later in the string.
-    (?iLmsux) Set the I, L, M, S, U, or X flag for the RE (see below).
+    (?aiLmsux) Set the A, I, L, M, S, U, or X flag for the RE (see below).
     (?:...)  Non-grouping version of regular parentheses.
     (?P<name>...) The substring matched by the group is accessible by name.
     (?P=name)     Matches the text matched earlier by the group named name.
@@ -64,11 +64,18 @@
     \Z       Matches only at the end of the string.
     \b       Matches the empty string, but only at the start or end of a word.
     \B       Matches the empty string, but not at the start or end of a word.
-    \d       Matches any decimal digit; equivalent to the set [0-9].
-    \D       Matches any non-digit character; equivalent to the set [^0-9].
+    \d       Matches any decimal digit; equivalent to the set [0-9] in
+             bytes patterns or string patterns with the ASCII flag.
+             In string patterns without the ASCII flag, it will match the whole
+             range of Unicode digits.
+    \D       Matches any non-digit character; equivalent to [^\d].
     \s       Matches any whitespace character; equivalent to [ \t\n\r\f\v].
     \S       Matches any non-whitespace character; equiv. to [^ \t\n\r\f\v].
-    \w       Matches any alphanumeric character; equivalent to [a-zA-Z0-9_].
+    \w       Matches any alphanumeric character; equivalent to [a-zA-Z0-9_]
+             in bytes patterns or string patterns with the ASCII flag.
+             In string patterns without the ASCII flag, it will match the
+             range of Unicode alphanumeric characters (letters plus digits
+             plus underscore).
              With LOCALE, it will match the set [0-9_] plus characters defined
              as letters for the current locale.
     \W       Matches the complement of \w.
@@ -87,6 +94,12 @@
     escape   Backslash all non-alphanumerics in a string.
 
 Some of the functions in this module takes flags as optional parameters:
+    A  ASCII       For string patterns, make \w, \W, \b, \B, \d, \D
+                   match the corresponding ASCII character categories
+                   (rather than the whole Unicode categories, which is the
+                   default).
+                   For bytes patterns, this flag is the only available
+                   behaviour and needn't be specified.
     I  IGNORECASE  Perform case-insensitive matching.
     L  LOCALE      Make \w, \W, \b, \B, dependent on the current locale.
     M  MULTILINE   "^" matches the beginning of lines (after a newline)
@@ -95,7 +108,8 @@
                    as the end of the string.
     S  DOTALL      "." matches any character at all, including the newline.
     X  VERBOSE     Ignore whitespace and comments for nicer looking RE's.
-    U  UNICODE     Make \w, \W, \b, \B, dependent on the Unicode locale.
+    U  UNICODE     For compatibility only. Ignored for string patterns (it
+                   is the default), and forbidden for bytes patterns.
 
 This module also defines an exception 'error'.
 
@@ -107,16 +121,17 @@
 
 # public symbols
 __all__ = [ "match", "search", "sub", "subn", "split", "findall",
-    "compile", "purge", "template", "escape", "I", "L", "M", "S", "X",
-    "U", "IGNORECASE", "LOCALE", "MULTILINE", "DOTALL", "VERBOSE",
+    "compile", "purge", "template", "escape", "A", "I", "L", "M", "S", "X",
+    "U", "ASCII", "IGNORECASE", "LOCALE", "MULTILINE", "DOTALL", "VERBOSE",
     "UNICODE", "error" ]
 
 __version__ = "2.2.1"
 
 # flags
+A = ASCII = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_ASCII # assume ascii "locale"
 I = IGNORECASE = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_IGNORECASE # ignore case
 L = LOCALE = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_LOCALE # assume current 8-bit locale
-U = UNICODE = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_UNICODE # assume unicode locale
+U = UNICODE = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_UNICODE # assume unicode "locale"
 M = MULTILINE = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_MULTILINE # make anchors look for newline
 S = DOTALL = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_DOTALL # make dot match newline
 X = VERBOSE = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_VERBOSE # ignore whitespace and comments