diff --git a/cmd/check_config.go b/cmd/check_config.go
index 6ba015ad1..088ae2464 100644
--- a/cmd/check_config.go
+++ b/cmd/check_config.go
@@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ import (
 var checkconfig = &cobra.Command{
 	Use:   "checkconfig",
 	Short: "Check config file for errors",
-	Run:   runConfigCheck,
+	Long: `Check the (specified or default) config file for errors. Note that
+	       checkconfig only checks the config file for parsing errors and does
+		   not check that individual device configurations are valid.`,
+	Run: runConfigCheck,
 }
 
 func init() {