diff --git a/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_finalize.c b/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_finalize.c
index 72c8cb7861..e53c47b318 100644
--- a/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_finalize.c
+++ b/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_finalize.c
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 #include "file/file.h"
 #include "info/info.h"
 #include "runtime/runtime.h"
-#include "util/common_cmd_line.h"
 
 #include "mca/base/base.h"
 #include "mca/ptl/ptl.h"
@@ -137,20 +136,12 @@ int ompi_mpi_finalize(void)
     return ret;
   }
       
-  if (OMPI_SUCCESS != (ret = ompi_common_cmd_line_finalize())) {
-    return ret;
-  }
-
   /* Leave OMPI land */
 
   if (OMPI_SUCCESS != (ret = ompi_finalize())) {
     return ret;
   }
       
-  if (OMPI_SUCCESS != (ret = ompi_common_cmd_line_finalize())) {
-    return ret;
-  }
-
   /* All done */
 
   return MPI_SUCCESS;
diff --git a/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_init.c b/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_init.c
index bfc531d3cb..0951294774 100644
--- a/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_init.c
+++ b/src/mpi/runtime/ompi_mpi_init.c
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 #include "communicator/communicator.h"
 #include "group/group.h"
 #include "info/info.h"
-#include "util/common_cmd_line.h"
 #include "util/show_help.h"
 #include "errhandler/errhandler.h"
 #include "errhandler/errcode.h"
@@ -68,13 +67,6 @@ int ompi_mpi_init(int argc, char **argv, int requested, int *provided)
     char *contact=NULL, **tmp, *nsreplica=NULL, *gprreplica=NULL;
     char *error;
 
-    /* Save command line parameters */
-
-    if (OMPI_SUCCESS != (ret = ompi_common_cmd_line_init(argc, argv))) {
-        error = "ompi_common_cmd_line_init() failed";
-        goto error;
-    }
-
     /* Become a OMPI process */
 
     if (OMPI_SUCCESS != (ret = ompi_init(argc, argv))) {
diff --git a/src/util/Makefile.am b/src/util/Makefile.am
index 4ebeeb2cd0..ed6d4812d7 100644
--- a/src/util/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/util/Makefile.am
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ headers = \
     argv.h \
     bit_ops.h \
     cmd_line.h \
-    common_cmd_line.h \
     few.h \
     if.h \
     malloc.h \
@@ -44,7 +43,6 @@ libutil_la_SOURCES = \
     asm.S \
     argv.c \
     cmd_line.c \
-    common_cmd_line.c \
     few.c \
     if.c \
     malloc.c \
diff --git a/src/util/cmd_line.h b/src/util/cmd_line.h
index a08f705f04..7e0829371f 100644
--- a/src/util/cmd_line.h
+++ b/src/util/cmd_line.h
@@ -201,8 +201,8 @@ extern "C" {
    * handle.
    *
    * @param cmd OMPI command line handle.
-   * @param ignore_unknown Whether to ignore unknown tokens in the
-   * middle of the command line or not.
+   * @param ignore_unknown Whether to print an error message upon
+   * finding an unknown token or not
    * @param argc Length of the argv array.
    * @param argv Array of strings from the command line.
    *
@@ -213,6 +213,12 @@ extern "C" {
    * handle can then be queried to see what options were used, what
    * their parameters were, etc.
    *
+   * If an unknown token is found in the command line (i.e., a token
+   * that is not a parameter or a registered option), the parsing will
+   * stop (see below).  If ignore_unknown is false, an error message
+   * is displayed.  If ignore_unknown is true, the error message is
+   * not displayed.
+   *
    * The contents of argc and argv are not changed during parsing.
    * argv[0] is assumed to be the executable name, and is ignored during
    * parsing.  It can later be retrieved with
@@ -221,7 +227,12 @@ extern "C" {
    *
    * - all argv tokens are processed
    * - the token "--" is found
-   * - an unrecognized token is found and ignore_unknown is false
+   * - an unrecognized token is found
+   *
+   * Upon any of these conditions, any remaining tokens will be placed
+   * in the "tail" (and therefore not examined by the parser),
+   * regardless of the value of ignore_unknown.  The set of tail
+   * tokens is available from the ompi_cmd_line_get_tail() function.
    *
    * Note that "--" is ignored if it is found in the middle an expected
    * number of arguments.  For example, if "--foo" is expected to have 3
@@ -233,9 +244,6 @@ extern "C" {
    * third parameter to the first instance of "foo", and "other" will be
    * an unrecognized option.
    *
-   * Unprocessed tokens are known as the "tail."  Any unprocessed tokens
-   * can be obtained from the ompi_cmd_line_get_tail() function.
-   *
    * Invoking this function multiple times on different sets of argv
    * tokens is safe, but will erase any previous parsing results.
    */
diff --git a/src/util/common_cmd_line.c b/src/util/common_cmd_line.c
deleted file mode 100644
index 9d8d77bec5..0000000000
--- a/src/util/common_cmd_line.c
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,55 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * $HEADER
- */
-
-#include "ompi_config.h"
-
-#include "include/constants.h"
-#include "util/common_cmd_line.h"
-
-
-/*
- * The global variable that everyone accesses
- */
-ompi_cmd_line_t *ompi_common_cmd_line = NULL;
-
-
-/*
- * Setup the ompi_common_cmd_line variable
- */
-int ompi_common_cmd_line_init(int argc, char **argv)
-{
-    if (NULL == ompi_common_cmd_line) {
-        ompi_common_cmd_line = OBJ_NEW(ompi_cmd_line_t);
-
-        /* Setup the options that are allowable */
-        
-        ompi_cmd_line_make_opt(ompi_common_cmd_line, 'v', "version", 0,
-                               "Show version of Open MPI and this program");
-
-        ompi_cmd_line_make_opt(ompi_common_cmd_line, 'h', "help", 0,
-                               "Show help for this function");
-
-        /* Parse the command line */
-
-        if (OMPI_SUCCESS != 
-            ompi_cmd_line_parse(ompi_common_cmd_line, true, argc, argv)) {
-            return OMPI_ERROR;
-        }
-    }
-
-    return OMPI_SUCCESS;
-}
-
-
-/*
- * Free resources associated with the ompi_common_cmd_line variable
- */
-int ompi_common_cmd_line_finalize(void)
-{
-    if (NULL != ompi_common_cmd_line) {
-        OBJ_RELEASE(ompi_common_cmd_line);
-    }
-
-    return OMPI_SUCCESS;
-}
diff --git a/src/util/common_cmd_line.h b/src/util/common_cmd_line.h
deleted file mode 100644
index 9a7627cff0..0000000000
--- a/src/util/common_cmd_line.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,65 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * $HEADER$
- */
-
-/** 
- * @file 
- *
- * Several command line parameters are common to many/most Open MPI
- * executables / commands.  This file provides a clearinghouse for
- * parsing and holding all these command line options that can be
- * retrieved from elsewhere in Open MPI.  For example, "--universe
- * [name]"
- */
-
-#ifndef OMPI_COMMON_CMD_LINE_H
-#define OMPI_COMMON_CMD_LINE_H
-
-#include <util/cmd_line.h>
-
-/**
- * Global variable to hold the parsed set of "common" command line
- * parameters.  This global variable should be treated as a "read
- * only" structure -- various entites in Open MPI can read from this
- * structure, but should not write to it.
- *
- * See the interface defined in cmd_line.h for instructions on how to
- * access the data in this variable.
- */
-extern ompi_cmd_line_t *ompi_common_cmd_line;
-
-/**
- * Setup for the command line parameters that are common to all/many
- * Open MPI executables (e.g., --universe).
- *
- * @param argv The argv from main().
- * @param argc The argc from main().
- *
- * @returns OMPI_SUCCESS Always.
- *
- * This function sets up a ompi_cmd_line_t for all command line
- * parameters that are common to a number of Open MPI executables.  It
- * then parses the argc and argv and puts the results in the gloabl
- * ompi_cmd_line_t.
- *
- * This function is only invoked by the normal startup of an Open MPI
- * process; you should not need to invoke it manually.  Anyone who
- * wants to access the common command line parameters should use the
- * global variable ompi_common_cmd_line.
- */
-int ompi_common_cmd_line_init(int argc, char **argv);
-
-/**
- * Release resources allocated by ompi_common_cmd_line_init().
- *
- * @returns OMPI_SUCCESS Always.
- *
- * Self-explanitory; frees the resources associated with the global
- * variable ompi_common_cmd_line.  This function is invoked by the
- * normal shutdown of an Open MPI process; you should not need to
- * invoke it manually.
- */
-int ompi_common_cmd_line_finalize(void);
-
-
-#endif /* OMPI_COMMON_CMD_LINE_H */