diff --git a/sbin/nvmecontrol/identify.c b/sbin/nvmecontrol/identify.c
index ab6b85f516e7..7cc499c031e6 100644
--- a/sbin/nvmecontrol/identify.c
+++ b/sbin/nvmecontrol/identify.c
@@ -259,6 +259,10 @@ identify(int argc, char *argv[])
 
 	while (getopt(argc, argv, "vx") != -1) ;
 
+	/* Check that a controller or namespace was specified. */
+	if (optind >= argc)
+		identify_usage();
+
 	target = argv[optind];
 
 	optreset = 1;
diff --git a/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.h b/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.h
index 99075f62e58c..8401dd7ccda3 100644
--- a/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.h
+++ b/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.h
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
 "       nvmecontrol devlist\n"
 
 #define IDENTIFY_USAGE							       \
-"       nvmecontrol identify <controller id|namespace id>\n"
+"       nvmecontrol identify [-x [-v]] <controller id|namespace id>\n"
 
 #define PERFTEST_USAGE							       \
 "       nvmecontrol perftest <-n num_threads> <-o read|write>\n"	       \