diff --git a/lib/cli.py b/lib/cli.py
index dd8f375d82e8215ab384adc55e0a1cc72f2a7e8f..ac72c3428dd3e99746b35560497c3e9ae3d0cad9 100644
--- a/lib/cli.py
+++ b/lib/cli.py
@@ -48,8 +48,9 @@ __all__ = [
   "CONFIRM_OPT",
   "DEBUG_OPT",
   "DEBUG_SIMERR_OPT",
-  "DISK_TEMPLATE_OPT",
+  "DISKIDX_OPT",
   "DISK_OPT",
+  "DISK_TEMPLATE_OPT",
   "FIELDS_OPT",
   "FILESTORE_DIR_OPT",
   "FILESTORE_DRIVER_OPT",
@@ -548,6 +549,11 @@ NET_OPT = cli_option("--net",
 DISK_OPT = cli_option("--disk", help="Disk parameters", default=[],
                       dest="disks", action="append", type="identkeyval")
 
+DISKIDX_OPT = cli_option("--disks", dest="disks", default=None,
+                         help="Comma-separated list of disks"
+                         " indices to act on (e.g. 0,2) (optional,"
+                         " defaults to all disks)")
+
 
 def _ParseArgs(argv, commands, aliases):
   """Parser for the command line arguments.
diff --git a/scripts/gnt-instance b/scripts/gnt-instance
index cd1e651f4a521c04a65a231f2d03149a70536a10..b825dda7b27830597f10def5419fbb18b1872b03 100755
--- a/scripts/gnt-instance
+++ b/scripts/gnt-instance
@@ -1512,10 +1512,7 @@ commands = {
                                 default=False, action="store_true",
                                 help=("Automatically replace faulty disks"
                                       " (only for the drbd template)")),
-                     cli_option("--disks", dest="disks", default=None,
-                                help="Comma-separated list of disks"
-                                " indices to replace (e.g. 0,2) (optional,"
-                                " defaults to all disks)"),
+                     DISKIDX_OPT,
                      IALLOCATOR_OPT,
                      SUBMIT_OPT,
                      ],
@@ -1570,12 +1567,7 @@ commands = {
                        "<instance>",
                        "Deactivate an instance's disks"),
   'recreate-disks': (RecreateDisks, ARGS_ONE_INSTANCE,
-                     [DEBUG_OPT, SUBMIT_OPT,
-                     cli_option("--disks", dest="disks", default=None,
-                                help="Comma-separated list of disks"
-                                " indices to replace (e.g. 0,2) (optional,"
-                                " defaults to all disks)"),
-                      ],
+                     [DEBUG_OPT, SUBMIT_OPT, DISKIDX_OPT],
                      "<instance>",
                      "Recreate an instance's disks"),
   'grow-disk': (GrowDisk,