diff --git a/builtin/rev-parse.c b/builtin/rev-parse.c
index 1cd55a2bd3..b3f634d209 100644
--- a/builtin/rev-parse.c
+++ b/builtin/rev-parse.c
@@ -387,6 +387,14 @@ static const char *skipspaces(const char *s)
 	return s;
 }
 
+static char *findspace(const char *s)
+{
+	for (; *s; s++)
+		if (isspace(*s))
+			return (char*)s;
+	return NULL;
+}
+
 static int cmd_parseopt(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 {
 	static int keep_dashdash = 0, stop_at_non_option = 0;
@@ -444,8 +452,8 @@ static int cmd_parseopt(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		memset(opts + onb, 0, sizeof(opts[onb]));
 
 		o = &opts[onb++];
-		help = strchr(sb.buf, ' ');
-		if (!help || *sb.buf == ' ') {
+		help = findspace(sb.buf);
+		if (!help || sb.buf == help) {
 			o->type = OPTION_GROUP;
 			o->help = xstrdup(skipspaces(sb.buf));
 			continue;
diff --git a/t/t1502-rev-parse-parseopt.sh b/t/t1502-rev-parse-parseopt.sh
index 3d895e0563..6e1b45fd12 100755
--- a/t/t1502-rev-parse-parseopt.sh
+++ b/t/t1502-rev-parse-parseopt.sh
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ test_expect_success 'setup optionspec' '
 EOF
 '
 
-test_expect_failure 'test --parseopt help output' '
+test_expect_success 'test --parseopt help output' '
 	sed -e "s/^|//" >expect <<\END_EXPECT &&
 |cat <<\EOF
 |usage: some-command [options] <args>...