-The \fBovs\-appctl\fR program connects to one or more running
-Open vSwitch daemons (such as \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR(8)), as specified by the
-user, and sends them commands to query or modify their behavior.
-Its primary purpose is currently to adjust daemons' logging levels.
-
-\fBovs\-appctl\fR applies one or more actions to each of one or more
-target processes. Targets may be specified using:
-
-.IP "\fB-t \fIsocket\fR"
-.IQ "\fB--target=\fIsocket\fR"
-The specified \fIsocket\fR must be the name of a Unix domain socket
-for a \fBovs\-appctl\fR-controllable process. If \fIsocket\fR does not
-begin with \fB/\fR, it is treated as relative to \fB@RUNDIR@\fR.
-
-Each Open vSwitch daemon by default creates a socket named
-\fB@RUNDIR@/\fIprogram\fB.\fIpid\fB.ctl\fR, where \fIprogram\fR is
-the program's name (such as \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR) and \fIpid\fR is the
-daemon's PID.
-
-.PP
-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]]"
-
+Open vSwitch daemons accept certain commands at runtime to control
+their behavior and query their settings. Every daemon accepts the
+commands for querying and adjusting its logging settings documented
+under \fBLOGGING COMMANDS\fR below, and \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR in
+particular accepts a number of additional commands documented in
+\fBovs\-vswitchd\fR(8).
+
+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.
+
+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
+The default target is \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR.
+.
+.SH LOGGING COMMANDS
+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 \fImodule\fR[\fB:\fIfacility\fR[\fB:\fIlevel\fR]]"