diff --git a/doc/manpages/qvm-template.rst b/doc/manpages/qvm-template.rst
index 81d84fb2..cbc8d250 100644
--- a/doc/manpages/qvm-template.rst
+++ b/doc/manpages/qvm-template.rst
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ Options
 
 .. option:: --updatevm UPDATEVM
 
-   Specify VM to download updates from. (default: sys-firewall)
+   Specify VM to download updates from. (Set to empty string to specify the
+   current VM.) (default: sys-firewall)
 
 .. option:: --enablerepo REPOID
 
diff --git a/qubesadmin/tools/qvm_template.py b/qubesadmin/tools/qvm_template.py
index 301c8f06..6e432820 100644
--- a/qubesadmin/tools/qvm_template.py
+++ b/qubesadmin/tools/qvm_template.py
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ def parser_add_command(cmd, help_str):
         default='/usr/share/qubes/repo-templates/keys',
         help='Specify directory containing RPM public keys.')
     parser_main.add_argument('--updatevm', default='sys-firewall',
-        help='Specify VM to download updates from.')
+        help=('Specify VM to download updates from.'
+            ' (Set to empty string to specify the current VM.)'))
     parser_main.add_argument('--enablerepo', action='append', default=[],
         metavar='REPOID',
         help=('Enable additional repositories by an id or a glob.'
@@ -340,7 +341,7 @@ def qrexec_popen(
     ``args.updatevm``.
 
     Note that this falls back to invoking ``/etc/qubes-rpc/*`` directly if
-    ``args.updatevm`` is None.
+    ``args.updatevm`` is empty string.
 
     :param args: Arguments received by the application. ``args.updatevm`` is
         used