diff -r 21d5e038120e Lib/argparse.py
--- a/Lib/argparse.py	Tue Mar 06 15:27:31 2012 +0100
+++ b/Lib/argparse.py	Tue Mar 06 12:01:39 2012 -0300
@@ -852,7 +852,27 @@
             help=help,
             metavar=metavar)
 
+        # has this action been called yet?
+        self.called = False
+
     def __call__(self, parser, namespace, values, option_string=None):
+        # if this action has nargs = "*" and is greedy, we need to override
+        # the default value (if any) that comes with the namespace in the first
+        # call, and append new values on successive calls
+        if self.nargs == ZERO_OR_MORE and parser.greedy_star and self.called:
+            previous = getattr(namespace, self.dest, None)
+
+            if previous is None:
+                previous = []
+            elif not isinstance(previous, list):
+                previous = [previous]
+
+            if isinstance(values, list):
+                values = previous + values
+            else:
+                values = previous + [values]
+
+        self.called = True
         setattr(namespace, self.dest, values)
 
 
@@ -1586,7 +1606,8 @@
                  fromfile_prefix_chars=None,
                  argument_default=None,
                  conflict_handler='error',
-                 add_help=True):
+                 add_help=True,
+                 greedy_star=False):
 
         if version is not None:
             import warnings
@@ -1613,6 +1634,7 @@
         self.formatter_class = formatter_class
         self.fromfile_prefix_chars = fromfile_prefix_chars
         self.add_help = add_help
+        self.greedy_star = greedy_star
 
         add_group = self.add_argument_group
         self._positionals = add_group(_('positional arguments'))
@@ -1920,7 +1942,17 @@
 
             # slice off the Positionals that we just parsed and return the
             # index at which the Positionals' string args stopped
-            positionals[:] = positionals[len(arg_counts):]
+            # keep positionals that take zero or more arguments if they are
+            # greedy so we can reuse them
+            if not self.greedy_star:
+                positionals[:] = positionals[len(arg_counts):]
+            else:
+                positionals[:len(arg_counts)] = [
+                    p
+                    for p in positionals[:len(arg_counts)]
+                    if p.nargs == ZERO_OR_MORE
+                ]
+
             return start_index
 
         # consume Positionals and Optionals alternately, until we have