diff --git a/man/openrc-shutdown.8 b/man/openrc-shutdown.8
index eae16ae8..d0e95e24 100644
--- a/man/openrc-shutdown.8
+++ b/man/openrc-shutdown.8
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 .\" This file may not be copied, modified, propagated, or distributed
 .\"    except according to the terms contained in the LICENSE file.
 .\"
-.Dd April 6, 2017
+.Dd May 22, 2017
 .Dt openrc-shutdown 8 SMM
 .Os OpenRC
 .Sh NAME
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ upgrade of OpenRC if you are using openrc-init as your init process.
 .It Fl r , -reboot
 Stop all services, kill all processes and reboot the system.
 .El
+.Pp
+If none of these options are given, the default is to move the system
+into single user mode.
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr openrc-init 8 ,
 .Xr kexec 8 ,
diff --git a/src/rc/openrc-shutdown.c b/src/rc/openrc-shutdown.c
index 8905d354..0ed77445 100644
--- a/src/rc/openrc-shutdown.c
+++ b/src/rc/openrc-shutdown.c
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ if (geteuid() != 0)
 		case_RC_COMMON_GETOPT
 		}
 	}
-	if (cmd_count != 1) {
+	if (cmd_count > 1) {
 		eerror("%s: %s\n", applet, exclusive);
 		usage(EXIT_FAILURE);
 	}
@@ -128,5 +128,7 @@ if (geteuid() != 0)
 		send_cmd("reboot");
 	else if (do_reexec)
 		send_cmd("reexec");
+	else
+		send_cmd("single");
 	return 0;
 }