diff --git a/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html b/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html
index 8f15fb77c..d2464baaa 100644
--- a/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html
+++ b/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html
@@ -13,6 +13,14 @@
 
 <!-- Insert new items immediately below here ... -->
 
+<h4>More dbStatic commands accept "" or "*" to mean 'all'</h4>
+
+<p>The IOC commands dbDumpRecordType, dbDumpMenu and dbDumpRecord will now
+accept either an empty string or any string beginning with an asterisk '*' to
+mean all record types or menus.  Previously the 'all' option for these commands
+required passing in a NULL value, which could be done from the vxWorks shell but
+was not possible from iocsh.</p>
+
 <h4>VxWorks sysAtReboot Registration</h4>
 
 <p>The increasing intelligence of the GNU compiler and linker broke the method
diff --git a/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c b/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c
index 247240f25..56d54928c 100644
--- a/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c
+++ b/src/dbStatic/dbStaticLib.c
@@ -901,6 +901,11 @@ long epicsShareAPI dbWriteRecordFP(
 
     dctonly = ((level>1) ? FALSE : TRUE);
     dbInitEntry(pdbbase,pdbentry);
+    if (precordTypename) {
+        if (*precordTypename == 0 || *precordTypename == '*')
+            precordTypename = 0;
+    }
+
     if(!precordTypename) {
 	status = dbFirstRecordType(pdbentry);
 	if(status) {
@@ -997,6 +1002,10 @@ long epicsShareAPI dbWriteMenuFP(DBBASE *pdbbase,FILE *fp,const char *menuName)
 	fprintf(stderr,"pdbbase not specified\n");
 	return(-1);
     }
+    if (menuName) {
+        if (*menuName == 0 || *menuName == '*')
+            menuName = 0;
+    }
     pdbMenu = (dbMenu *)ellFirst(&pdbbase->menuList);
     while(pdbMenu) {
 	if(menuName) {
@@ -1042,6 +1051,11 @@ long epicsShareAPI dbWriteRecordTypeFP(
 	fprintf(stderr,"pdbbase not specified\n");
 	return(-1);
     }
+    if (recordTypeName) {
+        if (*recordTypeName == 0 || *recordTypeName == '*')
+            recordTypeName = 0;
+    }
+
     for(pdbRecordType = (dbRecordType *)ellFirst(&pdbbase->recordTypeList);
     pdbRecordType; pdbRecordType = (dbRecordType *)ellNext(&pdbRecordType->node)) {
 	if(recordTypeName) {
@@ -3962,8 +3976,9 @@ void  epicsShareAPI dbDumpDevice(DBBASE *pdbbase,const char *recordTypeName)
     devSup	*pdevSup;
     int		gotMatch;
 
-    if(recordTypeName) {
-        if(recordTypeName[0]==0 || recordTypeName[0] == '*') recordTypeName = 0;
+    if (recordTypeName) {
+        if (*recordTypeName == 0 || *recordTypeName == '*')
+            recordTypeName = 0;
     }
     if(!pdbbase) {
 	fprintf(stderr,"pdbbase not specified\n");