add a note about need to reinit when checking out a different branch

1 files changed, 11 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/README b/README
index 7912874..cfc89b1 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -92,11 +92,17 @@ installing or upgrading packages will automatically be committed. Here
 
 You can use any git commands you like, but do keep in mind that, if you
 check out a different branch or an old version, git is operating directly
-on your system's /etc. Often it's better to clone /etc to elsewhere and do
-potentially dangerous stuff in a staging directory. You can clone the 
-repository using git-clone, but be careful that the directory it's cloned
-into starts out mode 700, to prevent anyone else from seeing files like
-shadow, before `etckeeper init` fixes their permissions:
+on your system's /etc. But if you do decide to check out a branch or tag,
+make sure you run "etckeeper init" again, to get any metadata changes:
+
+	git checkout april_first_joke_etc
+	etckeeper init
+
+Often it's better to clone /etc to elsewhere and do potentially dangerous
+stuff in a staging directory. You can clone the repository using git-clone,
+but be careful that the directory it's cloned into starts out mode 700, to
+prevent anyone else from seeing files like shadow, before `etckeeper init`
+fixes their permissions:
 
 	mkdir /my/workdir
 	cd /my/workdir