diff --git a/src/build/help/help.xml b/src/build/help/help.xml
index e69952dea..46b11e404 100644
--- a/src/build/help/help.xml
+++ b/src/build/help/help.xml
@@ -127,10 +127,10 @@
 
                 <config-key-list>
                     <config-key id="buffer-size" name="Buffer Size">
-                        <summary>Buffer size for file operations.</summary>
+                        <summary>Buffer size for I/O operations.</summary>
 
                         <text>
-                            <p>Set the buffer size used for copy, compress, and uncompress functions. A maximum of 3 buffers will be in use at a time per process. An additional maximum of 256K per process may be used for zlib buffers.</p>
+                            <p>Buffer size used for copy, compress, encrypt, and other operations. The number of buffers used depends on options and each operation may use additional memory, e.g. <id>gz</id> compression may use an additional 256KiB of memory.</p>
 
                             <p>Size can be entered in bytes (default) or KB, MB, GB, TB, or PB where the multiplier is a power of 1024. For example, the case-insensitive value 32k (or 32KB) can be used instead of 32768.</p>
 
diff --git a/test/src/module/command/helpTest.c b/test/src/module/command/helpTest.c
index 8e113461e..b97d0d2d5 100644
--- a/test/src/module/command/helpTest.c
+++ b/test/src/module/command/helpTest.c
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ testRun(void)
             "\n"
             "General Options:\n"
             "\n"
-            "  --buffer-size                    buffer size for file operations\n"
+            "  --buffer-size                    buffer size for I/O operations\n"
             "                                   [current=32768, default=1048576]\n"
             "  --cmd-ssh                        path to ssh client executable [default=ssh]\n"
             "  --compress-level-network         network compression level [default=3]\n"
@@ -364,11 +364,11 @@ testRun(void)
         const char *optionHelp = strZ(strNewFmt(
             "%s - 'archive-push' command - 'buffer-size' option help\n"
             "\n"
-            "Buffer size for file operations.\n"
+            "Buffer size for I/O operations.\n"
             "\n"
-            "Set the buffer size used for copy, compress, and uncompress functions. A\n"
-            "maximum of 3 buffers will be in use at a time per process. An additional\n"
-            "maximum of 256K per process may be used for zlib buffers.\n"
+            "Buffer size used for copy, compress, encrypt, and other operations. The number\n"
+            "of buffers used depends on options and each operation may use additional\n"
+            "memory, e.g. gz compression may use an additional 256KiB of memory.\n"
             "\n"
             "Size can be entered in bytes (default) or KB, MB, GB, TB, or PB where the\n"
             "multiplier is a power of 1024. For example, the case-insensitive value 32k (or\n"