diff --git a/man/initctl.8 b/man/initctl.8
index 21709420..09adcbb7 100644
--- a/man/initctl.8
+++ b/man/initctl.8
@@ -132,7 +132,11 @@ Reload service by name (SIGHUP or restart)
 .It Nm Ar restart Cm NAME[:ID]
 Restart (stop/start) service by name
 .It Nm Ar status Cm NAME[:ID]
-Show service status, by name
+Show service status, by name.  If only
+.Cm NAME
+is given and multiple instances exits, a summary of all matching
+instances are shown.  Only an exact match displays the detailed status
+for a particular instance
 .It Nm Ar status
 Show status of all services, default command
 .It Nm Ar cgroup
diff --git a/src/initctl.c b/src/initctl.c
index 8e07325f..f6677fd8 100644
--- a/src/initctl.c
+++ b/src/initctl.c
@@ -703,18 +703,31 @@ static int show_status(char *arg)
 {
 	char ident[MAX_IDENT_LEN];
 	char buf[512];
+	int num = 0;
 	svc_t *svc;
 
 	runlevel = runlevel_get(NULL);
 
-	if (arg && arg[0]) {
+	while (arg && arg[0]) {
 		long now = jiffies();
 		char uptm[42] = "N/A";
 		char grbuf[128];
 		char path[256];
 		struct cg *cg;
+		int exact = 0;
 		char *group;
 
+		for (svc = client_svc_iterator(1); svc; svc = client_svc_iterator(0)) {
+			svc_ident(svc, ident, sizeof(ident));
+			if (string_match(ident, arg))
+				num++;
+			if (string_case_compare(ident, arg))
+				exact++;
+		}
+
+		if (num > 1 && !exact)
+			break;
+
 		svc = client_svc_find(arg);
 		if (!svc)
 			return 255;
@@ -768,9 +781,11 @@ static int show_status(char *arg)
 	for (svc = client_svc_iterator(1); svc; svc = client_svc_iterator(0)) {
 		char *lvls;
 
-		printf("%-*d  ", pw, svc->pid);
-
 		svc_ident(svc, ident, sizeof(ident));
+		if (num && !string_match(ident, arg))
+			continue;
+
+		printf("%-*d  ", pw, svc->pid);
 		printf("%-*s  %s ", iw, ident, status(svc, 0));
 
 		lvls = runlevel_string(runlevel, svc->runlevels);