+@defvar file-name-coding-system
+The variable @code{file-name-coding-system} specifies the coding
+system to use for encoding file names. Emacs encodes file names using
+that coding system for all file operations. If
+@code{file-name-coding-system} is @code{nil}, Emacs uses a default
+coding system determined by the selected language environment. In the
+default language environment, any non-@acronym{ASCII} characters in
+file names are not encoded specially; they appear in the file system
+using the internal Emacs representation.
+@end defvar
+
+ @strong{Warning:} if you change @code{file-name-coding-system} (or
+the language environment) in the middle of an Emacs session, problems
+can result if you have already visited files whose names were encoded
+using the earlier coding system and are handled differently under the
+new coding system. If you try to save one of these buffers under the
+visited file name, saving may use the wrong file name, or it may get
+an error. If such a problem happens, use @kbd{C-x C-w} to specify a
+new file name for that buffer.
+