diff --git a/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.8 b/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.8
--- a/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.8
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@
 .Op Fl r Ar newrelease
 .Op Fl s Ar server
 .Op Fl t Ar address
+.Op Fl v Ar outputlevel
+.Op Fl Fl debug
+.Op Fl Fl nostats
 .Ar command ...
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 The
@@ -152,6 +155,25 @@
 running the specified
 .Ar release .
 This is most likely to be useful when upgrading jails.
+.It Fl v Ar outputlevel
+Set the output level to one of stats, nostats, or debug.
+The default
+.Ar outputlevel
+is stats, which outputs progress statistics while downloading files.
+If
+.Ar outputlevel
+is nostats,
+.Nm
+will not output progress statistics.
+If
+.Ar outputlevel
+is debug, output from utilities will not be filtered.
+.It Fl Fl debug
+An alias for
+.Fl v Ar debug .
+.It Fl Fl no-stats
+An alias for
+.Fl v Ar nostats .
 .El
 .Sh COMMANDS
 The
diff --git a/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh b/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh
--- a/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh
+++ b/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh
@@ -29,9 +29,7 @@
 
 #### Usage function -- called from command-line handling code.
 
-# Usage instructions.  Options not listed:
-# --debug	-- don't filter output from utilities
-# --no-stats	-- don't show progress statistics while fetching files
+# Usage instructions.
 usage () {
 	cat <<EOF
 usage: `basename $0` [options] command ...
@@ -56,6 +54,13 @@
                -- Run without a tty, for use by automated tools
   --currently-running release
                -- Update as if currently running this release
+  -v (stats | nostats | debug)
+               -- Set level of output. The options are:
+                  stats      show progress statistics while fetching files
+                  nostats    do not show progress statistics
+                  debug      do not filter output from utilities
+  --debug      -- alias for -v debug
+  --no-stats   -- alias for -v nostats
 Commands:
   fetch        -- Fetch updates from server
   cron         -- Sleep rand(3600) seconds, fetch updates, and send an