diff --git a/bin/is b/bin/is
index e7ca6462fb4c37db4353168fd76e00d5c2d2a582..7ac4382d1c0f0b8b59fc3c0c29562db3da6540e0 100755
--- a/bin/is
+++ b/bin/is
@@ -46,12 +46,12 @@ def load_repositories(args):
     if args.repo_path is not None:
         repoman.register(RepositoryConfig(istools.smd5sum(args.repo_path)[:8],
                                           path=args.repo_path), temp=True,
-                         nosync=hasattr(args, "no_sync") and args.no_sync,
+                         nosync=args.no_sync,
                          offline=hasattr(args, "force_offline") and args.force_offline)
     # load repo configs from config
     for repoconf in RepoConfigFile(args.repo_config).repos:
         repoman.register(repoconf,
-                         nosync=hasattr(args, "no_sync") and args.no_sync,
+                         nosync=args.no_sync,
                          offline=hasattr(args, "force_offline") and args.force_offline)
     return repoman
 
@@ -486,7 +486,9 @@ def parser_init():
     parser.add_argument("-t", "--timeout", dest="timeout", type=int, default=None,
                         metavar="SECONDS", help="download timeout (default 3)")
     parser.add_argument("--no-cache", action="store_true", default=None,
-                        help="not use persistent db caching")
+                        help="not use persistent database caching")
+    parser.add_argument("--no-sync", action="store_true", default=False,
+                        help="doesn't sync repository database cache")
     parser.add_argument("--no-color", action="store_true", default=None,
                         help="dot not display colored output")
     # create a subparser for commands
@@ -641,8 +643,6 @@ def parser_init():
                    help="display image size")
     p.add_argument("-u", "--url", action="store_true", default=False,
                    help="display image url")
-    p.add_argument("--no-sync", action="store_true", default=False,
-                   help="doesn't sync repository before listing")
     p.add_argument("image", nargs="*", default=['*'],
                    help="image syntax is [repository/]image[:version]")
     p.set_defaults(func=c_list)
diff --git a/completion/bash/is b/completion/bash/is
index 374d499f0b6669f5b0361bc62fe29eea570d82e3..c9ae2e901cb9234fe7d9dce0ec403cf29426a555 100644
--- a/completion/bash/is
+++ b/completion/bash/is
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ _repo() {
 
 # list all images available in any online repositories
 _remote_image() {
-   COMPREPLY=("${COMPREPLY[@]}" $(compgen -W "$(is -q --no-color --repo-search '' list --no-sync)" -- "$cur"))
+   COMPREPLY=("${COMPREPLY[@]}" $(compgen -W "$(is -q --no-color --no-sync --repo-search '' list)" -- "$cur"))
 }
 
 # list all local (files) images
@@ -53,7 +53,9 @@ _is() {
    '-c'  '--config'
    '-C'  '--cache'
    '-t'  '--timeout'
-   '--no-cache'  '--no-color')
+   '--no-cache'
+   '--no-color'
+   '--no-sync')
 
    case "$arg" in
       '')
@@ -135,7 +137,7 @@ _is() {
          (( args > 2 )) && _filedir
       ;;
       list)
-         [[ "$cur" == -* ]] && _opt '-h --help -l --long -j --json -m --md5 -s --size -d --date -a --all-version -A --author -u --url -D --description --no-sync' && return 0
+         [[ "$cur" == -* ]] && _opt '-h --help -l --long -j --json -m --md5 -s --size -d --date -a --all-version -A --author -u --url -D --description' && return 0
          _remote_image
       ;;
       move)