diff --git a/documentation/content/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge/_index.adoc b/documentation/content/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge/_index.adoc
--- a/documentation/content/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge/_index.adoc
+++ b/documentation/content/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge/_index.adoc
@@ -596,6 +596,41 @@
 Branch names, such as `stable/9`, are listed at link:https://www.FreeBSD.org/releng/[www.freebsd.org/releng].
 . Before compiling or upgrading to FreeBSD-STABLE , read [.filename]#/usr/src/Makefile# carefully and follow the instructions in <<makeworld>>. Read the {freebsd-stable} and [.filename]#/usr/src/UPDATING# to keep up-to-date on other bootstrapping procedures that sometimes become necessary on the road to the next release.
 
+[[translate-n-number]]
+=== The N-number
+Regardless of which system on is running, version information is compiled into the kernel and can be retrieved with man:uname[1].
+For example:
+[source,shell]
+....
+% uname
+FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT #112 main-n247514-031260d64c18: Tue Jun 22 20:43:19 MDT 2021     fred@machine:/usr/home/fred/obj/usr/home/fred/git/head/amd64.amd64/sys/FRED
+....
+Looking at the 4th field, it is made up of several parts:
+[source,shell]
+....
+main-n247514-031260d64c18
+
+main		<.>
+n247514		<.>
+031260d64c18	<.>
+....
+<.> Branch name
+<.> The N-number is a linear count of commits back to the start of the Git repository starting with the git hash included in the line.
+<.> Git hash
+
+The `git rev-list` command is used to find the n-number corresponding to a Git hash.
+For example:
+[source,shell]
+....
+% git rev-list --first-parent --count 031260d64c18 <.>
+247514 <.>
+....
+<.> git hash to translate (the hash from the above example is reused)
+<.> The n-number.
+
+Usually this number is not all that important.
+However, sometimes fixes are committed to the tree and this can help determine if the hash of the commit is before or after the version reported using the two n-numbers.
+
 [[makeworld]]
 == Updating FreeBSD from Source