diff --git a/l3build-manifest-setup.lua b/l3build-manifest-setup.lua
index fbdfdffb..8965a421 100644
--- a/l3build-manifest-setup.lua
+++ b/l3build-manifest-setup.lua
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ documentation files listed above.
     {
        name    = "Text files",
        files   = {textfiles},
-       extractfiledesc = false,
+       skipfiledescription = true,
     },
     {
        name    = "Demo files",
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ documentation files listed above.
        files   = {installfiles},
        exclude = {excludefiles,sourcefiles},
        dir     = unpackdir,
-       extractfiledesc = false,
+       skipfiledescription = true,
     },
     {
        name    = "Typeset documents",
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ different engines (pdfTeX, XeTeX, LuaTeX, etc.).
        ]],
        files   = {"*"..lvtext,"*"..lveext,"*"..tlgext},
        dir     = testfiledir,
-       extractfiledesc = false,
+       skipfiledescription = true,
     },
   }
   return groups
diff --git a/l3build-manifest.lua b/l3build-manifest.lua
index 72cd807c..f3047acb 100644
--- a/l3build-manifest.lua
+++ b/l3build-manifest.lua
@@ -91,10 +91,10 @@ manifest_build_init = function(entry)
 
   -- currently these aren't customisable; I guess they could/should be?
   local manifest_group_defaults = {
-    extractfiledesc  = true           ,
-    rename           = false          ,
-    dir              = maindir        ,
-    exclude          = {excludefiles} ,
+    skipfiledescription  = false          ,
+    rename               = false          ,
+    dir                  = maindir        ,
+    exclude              = {excludefiles} ,
   }
 
   -- internal data added to each group in the table that needs to be initialised
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ manifest_build_file = function(entry,this_file)
       
     end
 
-    if not(entry.rename) and entry.extractfiledesc then
+    if not(entry.rename) and not(entry.skipfiledescription) then
     
       local ff = assert(io.open(entry.dir .. "/" .. this_file, "r"))
       this_descr  = manifest_extract_filedesc(ff,this_file)
diff --git a/l3build.dtx b/l3build.dtx
index 4eddc2c3..746a4f98 100644
--- a/l3build.dtx
+++ b/l3build.dtx
@@ -1465,7 +1465,7 @@
 %       \var{exclude}            & Files to exclude (default |{excludefiles}|)          \\
 %       \var{dir}                & The directory to search (default |maindir|)          \\
 %       \var{rename}             & An array with a |gsub| redefinition for the filename \\
-%       \var{extractfiledesc}    & Whether to extract file descriptions from these files (default |true|) \\
+%       \var{skipfiledescription} & Whether to extract file descriptions from these files (default |false|) \\
 %     \bottomrule
 %     \end{tabular}
 % \end{table}