diff --git a/src/afsd/afsd.c b/src/afsd/afsd.c
index 147865105f..dd63963c5c 100644
--- a/src/afsd/afsd.c
+++ b/src/afsd/afsd.c
@@ -1684,8 +1684,16 @@ rmtsysd_thread(void *rock)
 }
 #endif /* !UKERNEL */
 
-int
-mainproc(struct cmd_syndesc *as, void *arock)
+/**
+ * Check the command line and cacheinfo options.
+ *
+ * @param[in] as  parsed command line arguments
+ *
+ * @note Invokes the shutdown syscall and exits with 0 when
+ *       -shutdown is given.
+ */
+static int
+CheckOptions(struct cmd_syndesc *as)
 {
     afs_int32 code;		/*Result of fork() */
 #ifdef	AFS_SUN5_ENV
@@ -2520,7 +2528,7 @@ afsd_init(void)
 {
     struct cmd_syndesc *ts;
 
-    ts = cmd_CreateSyntax(NULL, mainproc, NULL, 0, "start AFS");
+    ts = cmd_CreateSyntax(NULL, NULL, NULL, 0, "start AFS");
 
     /* 0 - 10 */
     cmd_AddParmAtOffset(ts, OPT_blocks, "-blocks", CMD_SINGLE,
@@ -2618,10 +2626,24 @@ afsd_init(void)
 			"Set inode number calculation method");
 }
 
+/**
+ * Parse and check the command line options.
+ *
+ * @note The -shutdown command is handled in CheckOptions().
+ */
 int
 afsd_parse(int argc, char **argv)
 {
-    return cmd_Dispatch(argc, argv);
+    struct cmd_syndesc *ts = NULL;
+    int code;
+
+    code = cmd_Parse(argc, argv, &ts);
+    if (code) {
+	return code;
+    }
+    code = CheckOptions(ts);
+    cmd_FreeOptions(&ts);
+    return code;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/afsd/afsd_fuse.c b/src/afsd/afsd_fuse.c
index 7b3968b79d..6c03476e7c 100644
--- a/src/afsd/afsd_fuse.c
+++ b/src/afsd/afsd_fuse.c
@@ -608,7 +608,18 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 	split_args(&args);
 
-	uafs_ParseArgs(afsd_args.argc, afsd_args.argv);
+	code = uafs_ParseArgs(afsd_args.argc, afsd_args.argv);
+	if (code != 0) {
+	    /*
+	     * split_args() failed to populate afds_args correctly.
+	     * We do not not bother to check for CMD_HELP here, since
+	     * split_args() exits when -help is given.
+	     */
+	    fprintf(stderr,
+		    "afsd.fuse: Could not parse command line options; code %d\n",
+		    code);
+	    return 1;
+	}
 
 	/* pass "-- /mount/dir" to fuse to specify dir to mount; "--" is
 	 * just to make sure fuse doesn't interpret the mount dir as a flag
diff --git a/src/afsd/afsd_kernel.c b/src/afsd/afsd_kernel.c
index f3cfab6c10..5799f3dd0f 100644
--- a/src/afsd/afsd_kernel.c
+++ b/src/afsd/afsd_kernel.c
@@ -570,7 +570,10 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
     afsd_init();
 
     code = afsd_parse(argc, argv);
-    if (code) {
+    if (code == CMD_HELP) {
+	return 0; /* Displaying help is not an error. */
+    }
+    if (code != 0) {
 	return -1;
     }