diff --git a/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.8 b/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.8
index b5a85b1ab9f5..1310184ac309 100644
--- a/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.8
+++ b/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.8
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 .\"
 .\" Author: Jim Harris <jimharris@FreeBSD.org>
 .\"
-.Dd April 17, 2024
+.Dd May 3, 2024
 .Dt NVMECONTROL 8
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -687,7 +687,7 @@ or
 .Pa nvdZ .
 The leading
 .Pa /dev/
-is omitted.
+may be omitted.
 Where
 .Aq Ar device-id
 is required, you can use either the
diff --git a/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.c b/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.c
index 10623799d705..8ad9703de9f6 100644
--- a/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.c
+++ b/sbin/nvmecontrol/nvmecontrol.c
@@ -145,9 +145,12 @@ read_namespace_data(int fd, uint32_t nsid, struct nvme_namespace_data *nsdata)
 int
 open_dev(const char *str, int *fd, int write, int exit_on_error)
 {
-	char		full_path[64];
+	char		full_path[MAXPATHLEN];
 
-	snprintf(full_path, sizeof(full_path), _PATH_DEV"%s", str);
+	if (str[0] == '/')	/* Full path */
+		strlcpy(full_path, str, sizeof(full_path));
+	else			/* Add /dev/ */
+		snprintf(full_path, sizeof(full_path), _PATH_DEV"%s", str);
 	*fd = open(full_path, write ? O_RDWR : O_RDONLY);
 	if (*fd < 0) {
 		if (exit_on_error) {