diff --git a/lib/libfetch/fetch.3 b/lib/libfetch/fetch.3
index 2c04c4ae5b78..0efb6904e20f 100644
--- a/lib/libfetch/fetch.3
+++ b/lib/libfetch/fetch.3
@@ -383,20 +383,25 @@ and message, e.g. "File is not available (404 Not Found)"
 .It Ev FTP_PROXY
 host name of the FTP proxy to use, optionally followed by a port
 number separated from the host name by a colon.
-.\" .It Ev HTTP_AUTH
-.\" Specifies HTTP authorization parameters.
+.It Ev HTTP_AUTH
+Specifies HTTP authorization parameters, used only if the server
+requires authorization and no user name or password was specified in
+the URL.
+The first and second item are the authorization scheme and realm
+respectively; further items are scheme-dependent.
+Currently, only basic authorization is supported.
+Basic authorization requires two parameters: the user name and
+password, in that order.
 .It Ev HTTP_PROXY
 host name of the HTTP proxy to use, optionally followed by a port
 number separated from the host name by a colon.
 If no port number is specified, the default is 3128.
 .It Ev HTTP_PROXY_AUTH
-Specifies authorization parameters for the HTTP proxy as a
-colon-separated list.
-The first and second item are the authorization scheme and realm
-respectively; further items are scheme-dependent.
-Currently, only basic authorization is supported.
-Basic authorization requires two parameters: the user's login name and
-password, in that order.
+Specifies authorization parameters for the HTTP proxy in the same
+format as
+.Ev HTTP_AUTH .
+The value of this variable is used if and only if connected to an HTTP
+proxy.
 .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr fetch 1 ,
@@ -464,13 +469,14 @@ There's no way to select a proxy at run-time other than setting the
 or
 .Ev FTP_PROXY
 environment variables as appropriate.
-There is also no way to stop the
-FTP and HTTP functions from trying to use a proxy if these variables
-are set.
+.Pp
 .Nm libfetch
 does not attempt to interpret and respond to authentication requests
 from the HTTP server or proxy (code 401 and 407 respectively).
 .Pp
+.Nm libfetch
+does not understand or obey 305 (Use Proxy) replies.
+.Pp
 No attempt is made to encode spaces etc. within URLs.
 Spaces in the
 document part of an URLshould be replaced with "%20" in HTTP URLs and