diff --git a/lib/puppet/application/string_base.rb b/lib/puppet/application/string_base.rb
index 06e5789be..76b0a46fd 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/application/string_base.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/application/string_base.rb
@@ -1,128 +1,130 @@
 require 'puppet/application'
 require 'puppet/string'
 
 class Puppet::Application::StringBase < Puppet::Application
   should_parse_config
   run_mode :agent
 
   option("--debug", "-d") do |arg|
     Puppet::Util::Log.level = :debug
   end
 
   option("--verbose", "-v") do
     Puppet::Util::Log.level = :info
   end
 
   option("--format FORMAT") do |arg|
     @format = arg.to_sym
   end
 
   option("--mode RUNMODE", "-r") do |arg|
     raise "Invalid run mode #{arg}; supported modes are user, agent, master" unless %w{user agent master}.include?(arg)
     self.class.run_mode(arg.to_sym)
     set_run_mode self.class.run_mode
   end
 
 
   attr_accessor :string, :action, :type, :arguments, :format
   attr_writer :exit_code
 
   # This allows you to set the exit code if you don't want to just exit
   # immediately but you need to indicate a failure.
   def exit_code
     @exit_code || 0
   end
 
   # Override this if you need custom rendering.
   def render(result)
     render_method = Puppet::Network::FormatHandler.format(format).render_method
     if render_method == "to_pson"
       jj result
       exit(0)
     else
       result.send(render_method)
     end
   end
 
   def preinit
     super
     trap(:INT) do
       $stderr.puts "Cancelling String"
       exit(0)
     end
 
     # We need to parse enough of the command line out early, to identify what
     # the action is, so that we can obtain the full set of options to parse.
 
     # TODO: These should be configurable versions, through a global
     # '--version' option, but we don't implement that yet... --daniel 2011-03-29
     @type   = self.class.name.to_s.sub(/.+:/, '').downcase.to_sym
     @string = Puppet::String[@type, :current]
     @format = @string.default_format
 
     # Now, walk the command line and identify the action.  We skip over
     # arguments based on introspecting the action and all, and find the first
     # non-option word to use as the action.
     action = nil
     index  = -1
     until @action or (index += 1) >= command_line.args.length do
       item = command_line.args[index]
       if item =~ /^-/ then
         option = @string.options.find { |a| item =~ /^-+#{a}\b/ }
         if option then
           option = @string.get_option(option)
           # If we have an inline argument, just carry on.  We don't need to
           # care about optional vs mandatory in that case because we do a real
           # parse later, and that will totally take care of raising the error
           # when we get there. --daniel 2011-04-04
           if option.takes_argument? and !item.index('=') then
             index += 1 unless
               (option.optional_argument? and command_line.args[index + 1] =~ /^-/)
           end
         else
           raise ArgumentError, "Unknown option #{item.sub(/=.*$/, '').inspect}"
         end
       else
         action = @string.get_action(item.to_sym)
         if action.nil? then
           raise ArgumentError, "#{@string} does not have an #{item.inspect} action!"
         end
         @action = action
       end
     end
 
     @action or raise ArgumentError, "No action given on the command line!"
 
     # Finally, we can interact with the default option code to build behaviour
     # around the full set of options we now know we support.
     @action.options.each do |option|
       option = @action.get_option(option) # make it the object.
       self.class.option(*option.optparse) # ...and make the CLI parse it.
     end
   end
 
   def setup
     Puppet::Util::Log.newdestination :console
 
-    # We copy all of the app options to the end of the call; This allows each
-    # action to read in the options.  This replaces the older model where we
-    # would invoke the action with options set as global state in the
-    # interface object.  --daniel 2011-03-28
-    #
+    @arguments = command_line.args
+
     # Note: because of our definition of where the action is set, we end up
     # with it *always* being the first word of the remaining set of command
     # line arguments.  So, strip that off when we construct the arguments to
     # pass down to the string action. --daniel 2011-04-04
-    @arguments = command_line.args[1, -1] || []
+    @arguments.delete_at(0)
+
+    # We copy all of the app options to the end of the call; This allows each
+    # action to read in the options.  This replaces the older model where we
+    # would invoke the action with options set as global state in the
+    # interface object.  --daniel 2011-03-28
     @arguments << options
   end
 
 
   def main
     # Call the method associated with the provided action (e.g., 'find').
     if result = @string.send(@action.name, *arguments)
       puts render(result)
     end
     exit(exit_code)
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/unit/application/string_base_spec.rb b/spec/unit/application/string_base_spec.rb
index 753d911d1..cd24b6c49 100755
--- a/spec/unit/application/string_base_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/application/string_base_spec.rb
@@ -1,150 +1,156 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env ruby
 
 require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../../spec_helper.rb')
 require 'puppet/application/string_base'
 require 'tmpdir'
 
 class Puppet::Application::StringBase::Basetest < Puppet::Application::StringBase
 end
 
 describe Puppet::Application::StringBase do
   before :all do
     @dir = Dir.mktmpdir
     $LOAD_PATH.push(@dir)
     FileUtils.mkdir_p(File.join @dir, 'puppet', 'string')
     File.open(File.join(@dir, 'puppet', 'string', 'basetest.rb'), 'w') do |f|
       f.puts "Puppet::String.define(:basetest, '0.0.1')"
     end
 
     Puppet::String.define(:basetest, '0.0.1') do
       option("--[no-]boolean")
       option("--mandatory MANDATORY")
       option("--optional [OPTIONAL]")
 
       action :foo do
         option("--action")
         when_invoked { |*args| args.length }
       end
     end
   end
 
   after :all do
     FileUtils.remove_entry_secure @dir
     $LOAD_PATH.pop
   end
 
   let :app do
     app = Puppet::Application::StringBase::Basetest.new
     app.stubs(:exit)
     app.stubs(:puts)
     app.command_line.stubs(:subcommand_name).returns 'subcommand'
     Puppet::Util::Log.stubs(:newdestination)
     app
   end
 
   describe "#preinit" do
     before :each do
       app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{}
     end
 
     describe "parsing the command line" do
       context "with just an action" do
         before :all do
           app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{foo}
           app.preinit
         end
 
         it "should set the string based on the type" do
           app.string.name.should == :basetest
         end
 
         it "should set the format based on the string default" do
           app.format.should == :pson
         end
 
         it "should find the action" do
           app.action.should be
           app.action.name.should == :foo
         end
       end
 
       it "should fail if no action is given" do
         expect { app.preinit }.
           should raise_error ArgumentError, /No action given/
       end
 
       it "should report a sensible error when options with = fail" do
         app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{--action=bar foo}
         expect { app.preinit }.
           should raise_error ArgumentError, /Unknown option "--action"/
       end
 
       it "should fail if an action option is before the action" do
         app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{--action foo}
         expect { app.preinit }.
           should raise_error ArgumentError, /Unknown option "--action"/
       end
 
       it "should fail if an unknown option is before the action" do
         app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{--bar foo}
         expect { app.preinit }.
           should raise_error ArgumentError, /Unknown option "--bar"/
       end
 
       it "should not fail if an unknown option is after the action" do
         app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{foo --bar}
         app.preinit
         app.action.name.should == :foo
         app.string.should_not be_option :bar
         app.action.should_not be_option :bar
       end
 
       it "should accept --bar as an argument to a mandatory option after action" do
         app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{foo --mandatory --bar}
         app.preinit and app.parse_options
         app.action.name.should == :foo
         app.options.should == { :mandatory => "--bar" }
       end
 
       it "should accept --bar as an argument to a mandatory option before action" do
         app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{--mandatory --bar foo}
         app.preinit and app.parse_options
         app.action.name.should == :foo
         app.options.should == { :mandatory => "--bar" }
       end
 
       it "should not skip when --foo=bar is given" do
         app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{--mandatory=bar --bar foo}
         expect { app.preinit }.
           should raise_error ArgumentError, /Unknown option "--bar"/
       end
     end
   end
 
   describe "#setup" do
     it "should remove the action name from the arguments" do
       app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{--mandatory --bar foo}
       app.preinit and app.parse_options and app.setup
       app.arguments.should == [{ :mandatory => "--bar" }]
     end
+
+    it "should pass positional arguments" do
+      app.command_line.stubs(:args).returns %w{--mandatory --bar foo bar baz quux}
+      app.preinit and app.parse_options and app.setup
+      app.arguments.should == ['bar', 'baz', 'quux', { :mandatory => "--bar" }]
+    end
   end
 
   describe "#main" do
     before do
       app.string    = Puppet::String[:basetest, '0.0.1']
       app.action    = app.string.get_action(:foo)
       app.format    = :pson
       app.arguments = ["myname", "myarg"]
     end
 
     it "should send the specified verb and name to the string" do
       app.string.expects(:foo).with(*app.arguments)
       app.main
     end
 
     it "should use its render method to render any result" do
       app.expects(:render).with(app.arguments.length + 1)
       app.main
     end
   end
 end