-The available actions are:
-
-.IP "\fB-l\fR"
-.IQ "\fB--list\fR"
-Print the list of known logging modules and their current levels to
-stdout.
-
-.IP "\fB-s\fR \fImodule\fR[\fB:\fIfacility\fR[\fB:\fIlevel\fR]]"
-.IQ "\fB--set=\fImodule\fR[\fB:\fIfacility\fR[\fB:\fIlevel\fR]]"
-
-Sets the logging level for \fImodule\fR in \fIfacility\fR to
-\fIlevel\fR. The \fImodule\fR may be any valid module name (as
-displayed by the \fB--list\fR option) or the special name \fBANY\fR to
-set the logging levels for all modules. The \fIfacility\fR may be
-\fBsyslog\fR or \fBconsole\fR to set the levels for logging to the
-system log or to the console, respectively, or \fBANY\fR to set the
-logging levels for both facilities. If it is omitted,
-\fIfacility\fR defaults to \fBANY\fR. The \fIlevel\fR must be one of
-\fBemer\fR, \fBerr\fR, \fBwarn\fR, \fBinfo\fR, or \fBdbg\fR, designating the
-minimum severity of a message for it to be logged. If it is omitted,
-\fIlevel\fR defaults to \fBdbg\fR.
-
-.IP "\fB-s PATTERN:\fIfacility\fB:\fIpattern\fR"
-.IQ "\fB--set=PATTERN:\fIfacility\fB:\fIpattern\fR"
-
+The \fBovs\-appctl\fR program provides a simple way to invoke these
+commands. The command to be sent is specified on \fBovs\-appctl\fR's
+command line as non-option arguments. \fBovs\-appctl\fR sends the
+command and prints the daemon's response on standard output.
+.PP
+In normal use only a single option is accepted:
+.IP "\fB\-t \fItarget\fR"
+.IQ "\fB\-\-target=\fItarget\fR"
+Tells \fBovs\-appctl\fR which daemon to contact.
+.IP
+If \fItarget\fR begins with \fB/\fR it must name a Unix domain socket
+on which an Open vSwitch daemon is listening for control channel
+connections. By default, each daemon listens on a Unix domain socket
+named \fB@RUNDIR@/\fIprogram\fB.\fIpid\fB.ctl\fR, where \fIprogram\fR
+is the program's name and \fIpid\fR is its process ID. For example,
+if \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR has PID 123, it would listen on
+\fB@RUNDIR@/ovs\-vswitchd.123.ctl\fR.
+.IP
+Otherwise, \fBovs\-appctl\fR looks for a pidfile, that is, a file
+whose contents are the process ID of a running process as a decimal
+number, named \fB@RUNDIR@/\fItarget\fB.pid\fR. (The \fB\-\-pidfile\fR
+option makes an Open vSwitch daemon create a pidfile.)
+\fBovs\-appctl\fR reads the pidfile, then looks for a Unix socket
+named \fB@RUNDIR@/\fItarget\fB.\fIpid\fB.ctl\fR, where \fIpid\fR is
+replaced by the process ID read from the pidfile, and uses that file
+as if it had been specified directly as the target.
+.IP
+On Windows, \fItarget\fR can be an absolute path to a file that contains
+a localhost TCP port on which an Open vSwitch daemon is listening
+for control channel connections. By default, each daemon writes the
+TCP port on which it is listening for control connection into the file
+\fIprogram\fB.ctl\fR located inside the configured \fIOVS_RUNDIR\fR
+directory. If \fItarget\fR is not an absolute path, \fBovs\-appctl\fR
+looks for a file named \fItarget\fB.ctl\fR in the configured \fIOVS_RUNDIR\fR
+directory.
+.IP
+The default target is \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR.
+.
+.SH COMMON COMMANDS
+Every Open vSwitch daemon supports a common set of commands, which are
+documented in this section.
+.
+.SS GENERAL COMMANDS
+These commands display daemon-specific commands and the running version.
+Note that these commands are different from the \fB\-\-help\fR and
+\fB\-\-version\fR options that return information about the
+\fBovs\-appctl\fR utility itself.
+.
+.IP "\fBhelp\fR"
+Lists the commands supported by the target.
+.
+.IP "\fBversion\fR"
+Displays the version and compilation date of the target.
+.
+.SS LOGGING COMMANDS
+Open vSwitch has several log levels. The highest-severity log level is:
+.
+.IP "\fBoff\fR"
+No message is ever logged at this level, so setting a logging
+facility's log level to \fBoff\fR disables logging to that facility.
+.
+.PP
+The following log levels, in order of descending severity, are
+available:
+.
+.IP "\fBemer\fR"
+A major failure forced a process to abort.
+.IP "\fBerr\fR"
+A high-level operation or a subsystem failed. Attention is
+warranted.
+.IP "\fBwarn\fR"
+A low-level operation failed, but higher-level subsystems may be able
+to recover.
+.IP "\fBinfo\fR"
+Information that may be useful in retrospect when investigating
+a problem.
+.IP "\fBdbg\fR"
+Information useful only to someone with intricate knowledge of the
+system, or that would commonly cause too-voluminous log output. Log
+messages at this level are not logged by default.
+.
+.PP
+Every Open vSwitch daemon supports the following commands for examining
+and adjusting log levels.
+.IP "\fBvlog/list\fR"
+Lists the known logging modules and their current levels.
+.
+.IP "\fBvlog/set\fR [\fIspec\fR]"
+Sets logging levels. Without any \fIspec\fR, sets the log level for
+every module and facility to \fBdbg\fR. Otherwise, \fIspec\fR is a
+list of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from
+each category below:
+.
+.RS
+.IP \(bu
+A valid module name, as displayed by the \fBvlog/list\fR command on
+\fBovs\-appctl\fR(8), limits the log level change to the specified
+module.
+.
+.IP \(bu
+\fBsyslog\fR, \fBconsole\fR, or \fBfile\fR, to limit the log level
+change to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file,
+respectively.
+.IP
+On Windows platform, \fBsyslog\fR is accepted as a word and
+is only useful if the \fItarget\fR was started with the
+\fB\-\-syslog\-target\fR option (the word has no effect otherwise).
+.
+.IP \(bu
+\fBoff\fR, \fBemer\fR, \fBerr\fR, \fBwarn\fR, \fBinfo\fR, or
+\fBdbg\fR, to control the log level. Messages of the given severity
+or higher will be logged, and messages of lower severity will be
+filtered out. \fBoff\fR filters out all messages.
+.RE
+.
+.IP
+Case is not significant within \fIspec\fR.
+.IP
+Regardless of the log levels set for \fBfile\fR, logging to a file
+will not take place unless the target application was invoked with the
+\fB\-\-log\-file\fR option.
+.IP
+For compatibility with older versions of OVS, \fBany\fR is accepted as
+a word but has no effect.
+.
+.IP "\fBvlog/set PATTERN:\fIfacility\fB:\fIpattern\fR"