diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 58e4b4e..f25f3c9 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@
   "bin": { "xml2json": "bin.js" },
   "preferGlobal": true,
   "dependencies": {
-    "xml-mapping": "1.0.x"
+    "xml-mapping": "1.0.x",
+    "optimist": "0.6.x"
   },
   "devDependencies": {},
   "scripts": {
diff --git a/xml2json.js b/xml2json.js
index 00c2cb4..cea3e16 100644
--- a/xml2json.js
+++ b/xml2json.js
@@ -1,7 +1,19 @@
 /*jshint node:true */
 "use strict";
 
-var xm = require('xml-mapping');
+var xm = require('xml-mapping'),
+    optimist = require('optimist'),
+    argv = optimist
+    .options('help',{alias:'h', describe: 'Show help'})
+    .options('caproot',{alias:'c',describe:'no root elem in JSON (if just one)'})
+    .usage('Reads standard input and writes to standard output.\nUsage : $0 [--help] [--caproot]')
+    .argv; 
+
+
+if ( argv.help ){
+  optimist.showHelp();
+  process.exit(0);
+}
 
 process.stdin.resume();
 process.stdin.setEncoding('utf8');
@@ -13,5 +25,11 @@ process.stdin.on('data', function (chunk) {
 
 process.stdin.on('end', function() {
   var json = xm.load(xml);
+
+  if(argv.caproot && Object.keys(json).length===1){
+     json = json[Object.keys(json)[0]];
+  }
   console.log(JSON.stringify(json, null, '\t'));
 });
+
+