diff --git a/src/tools/ceph_objectstore_tool.cc b/src/tools/ceph_objectstore_tool.cc
index 6cbe3dc2ad04e5..cff545bd480748 100644
--- a/src/tools/ceph_objectstore_tool.cc
+++ b/src/tools/ceph_objectstore_tool.cc
@@ -2259,7 +2259,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     ("data-path", po::value<string>(&dpath),
      "path to object store, mandatory")
     ("journal-path", po::value<string>(&jpath),
-     "path to journal, mandatory for filestore type")
+     "path to journal, use if tool can't find it")
     ("pgid", po::value<string>(&pgidstr),
      "PG id, mandatory for info, log, remove, export, rm-past-intervals, mark-complete")
     ("op", po::value<string>(&op),