diff --git a/xCAT-client/bin/xdsh b/xCAT-client/bin/xdsh
index 6e1f804b2..c727083a0 100644
--- a/xCAT-client/bin/xdsh
+++ b/xCAT-client/bin/xdsh
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ BEGIN
     $::XCATROOT = $ENV{'XCATROOT'} ? $ENV{'XCATROOT'} : -d '/opt/xcat' ? '/opt/xcat' : '/usr';
 }
 use lib "$::XCATROOT/lib/perl";
+use strict;
 use File::Basename;
 #use Data::Dumper;
 use Getopt::Long;
@@ -50,16 +51,22 @@ my $arg = shift(@SaveARGV);
 
 if ($arg =~ /^-/)                    # no noderange
 {
-    push @{$cmdref->{arg}}, $arg;
-    foreach (@SAVEARGV)
-    {
-        push(@{$cmdref->{arg}}, $_);
-    }
-    @ARGV = @{$cmdref->{arg}};       # save just the argument to parse
+    xCAT::MsgUtils->message(
+             "I",
+             "Node range not specified, see man page for syntax.\n"
+    );
+    exit 1;
 }
 else
 {
     $cmdref->{noderange}->[0] = $arg;    # save noderange
+    if (!($cmdref->{noderange}->[0])) {
+       xCAT::MsgUtils->message(
+             "I",
+             "Node range not specified, see man page for syntax.\n"
+             );
+       exit 1;
+    }
     @ARGV = @SaveARGV;                   # noderange removed for parsing
 }
 
@@ -77,7 +84,6 @@ foreach (@SaveARGV)
 {
     push(@{$cmdref->{arg}}, $_);
 }
-
 #  add environment variables, if they have not already been assigned with
 #  command line flags
 if (!($::NODE_RSH))