--- a/doc/cmdline.txt
+++ b/doc/cmdline.txt
@@ -23,6 +23,10 @@
       --version             show program's version number and exit
       -h, --help            show this help message and exit
 
+    subcommands:
+      extract   extract messages from source files and generate a POT file
+      init      create new message catalogs from a template
+
 The ``babel`` script provides a number of sub-commands that do the actual work.
 Those sub-commands are described below.
 
@@ -55,3 +59,37 @@
                             set output line width (default 76)
       --no-wrap             do not break long message lines, longer than the
                             output line width, into several lines
+
+
+init
+====
+
+The `init` sub-command creates a new translations catalog based on a PO
+template file::
+
+    $ babel init --help
+    usage: babel init [options] 
+    
+    create new message catalogs from a template
+    
+    options:
+    -h, --help      show this help message and exit
+    -D DOMAIN, --domain=DOMAIN
+                    domain of PO file (defaults to lower-cased project
+                    name)
+    -i INPUT_FILE, --input-file=INPUT_FILE
+                    name of the input file
+    -d OUTPUT_DIR, --output-dir=OUTPUT_DIR
+                    path to output directory
+    -o OUTPUT_FILE, --output-file=OUTPUT_FILE
+                    name of the output file (default
+                    '<output_dir>/<locale>/<domain>.po')
+    -l LOCALE, --locale=LOCALE
+                    locale for the new localized catalog
+    --first-author=FIRST_AUTHOR_NAME
+                    name of first author
+    --first-author-email=FIRST_AUTHOR_EMAIL
+                    email of first author
+    --project-name=NAME   the project name
+    --project-version=VERSION
+                    the project version