Issue #20328 has been updated by bkuhlmann (Brooke Kuhlmann). The confusion is with the array (third argument) used with your `--multiline-opt` option. If you change it to the following, you'll get the desired result: ``` ruby opts.on "-m", "--multiline-opt", "Line one", "Line two" ``` The reason this happens is because the method signature for `#on` is `*args, &block` which means all arguments *must be in the correct position* (this isn't entirely true because some positions are optional, though, but is a decent rule to follow). In your implementation, use of `['Line one', 'Line two']` is ignored because `--multiline-opt` is considered a *flag* since it takes no arguments. This might help: ``` ruby require "optparse" parser = OptionParser.new do |opts| opts.on("-a", %w[One Two]) { |value| puts value } opts.on("-b OPTION", %w[One Two]) { |value| puts value } opts.on("-c", "One", "Two") { |value| puts value } end parser.parse ["-a"] parser.parse ["-b", "One"] parser.parse ["-c"] parser.parse ["--help"] # true # One # true # Usage: demo [options] # -a # -b OPTION # -c One # Two ``` Notice how both the `-a` and `-c` options are *flags* (booleans) but only `-c` prints the ancillary text you are looking for. This is because you can have multiple lines of ancillary text as long as they are splatted the end of the argument list. In the case of the `-b` option, if you supplied a value other than "One" or "Two", you'd end up with a `OptionParser::InvalidArgument` error because the `%w[One Two]` array restricts what value is *allowed*. 💡 If it helps, I detail all of this -- and more -- in this [article](https://alchemists.io/articles/ruby_option_parser). ---------------------------------------- Bug #20328: optparse omits the option's description in the --help output if the description is an Array https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/20328#change-107160 * Author: postmodern (Hal Brodigan) * Status: Open * ruby -v: ruby 3.2.2 (2023-03-30 revision e51014f9c0) [x86_64-linux] * Backport: 3.0: UNKNOWN, 3.1: UNKNOWN, 3.2: UNKNOWN, 3.3: UNKNOWN ---------------------------------------- If you define an option using `OptionParser#on`, but give the option's description as a multi-line Array, then the option's description is omitted from the `--help` output. ## Steps To Reproduce ```ruby #!/usr/bin/env ruby require 'optparse' optparser = OptionParser.new do |opts| opts.banner = 'usage: test.rb [options]' opts.on('-o', '--opt [OPT]', 'Line one') do |opt| end opts.on('-m', '--multiline-opt', ['Line one', 'Line two']) do |test| end opts.on('-h', '--help', 'Prints this help') do puts opts exit end end optparser.parse(['--help']) ``` ### Expected result ``` usage: test.rb [options] -o, --opt [OPT] Line one -m, --multiline-opt Line one Line two -h, --help Prints this help ``` ### Actual Result ``` usage: test.rb [options] -o, --opt [OPT] Line one -m, --multiline-opt -h, --help Prints this help ``` or an `ArgumentError` should be raised if Array descriptions are not allowed/supported. ## Version Info Tested against optparse 0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.3.1, and the master branch. -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/