-@cmd{SYSFILE INFO} reads the dictionary in a system file and
-displays the information in its dictionary.
-
-Specify a file name or file handle. @cmd{SYSFILE INFO} reads that file as
-a system file and displays information on its dictionary.
+@cmd{SYSFILE INFO} reads the dictionary in an SPSS system file,
+SPSS/PC+ system file, or SPSS portable file, and displays the
+information in its dictionary.
+
+Specify a file name or file handle. @cmd{SYSFILE INFO} reads that
+file and displays information on its dictionary.
+
+@pspp{} automatically detects the encoding of string data in the file,
+when possible. The character encoding of old SPSS system files cannot
+always be guessed correctly, and SPSS/PC+ system files do not include
+any indication of their encoding. Specify the @subcmd{ENCODING}
+subcommand with an @acronym{IANA} character set name as its string
+argument to override the default, or specify @code{ENCODING='DETECT'}
+to analyze and report possibly valid encodings for the system file.
+The @subcmd{ENCODING} subcommand is a @pspp{} extension.