Running this code:

---------------------------------------

import argparse

p = argparse.ArgumentParser()
p.add_argument('--foo',
               help=u'This is a very long help string.  ex: "--s3\u00A0s3://my.bucket/dir1/dir2"')
p.parse_args()

produces:

---------------------------------------

$ ./arg.py  --help
usage: arg.py [-h] [--foo FOO]

optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--foo FOO This is a very long help string. ex: "--s3
s3://my.bucket/dir1/dir2"
---------------------------------------

It should not be breaking the line at a non-breaking space. I'm running:

Python 2.7.3 (default, Aug 1 2012, 05:14:39)
[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2

The example code works fine using 3.4.1 and 3.5.0a0 on Windows 7.

The issue here is how textwrap handles the non-breaking space. That's being address here:

http://bugs.python.org/issue20491 textwrap: Non-breaking space not honored

Temporarily an argparse user can get around it with formatter_class=argparse.RawTextHelpFormatter. That suppresses all automatic wrapping, so it's not perfect.

bpo-29290 reports the same problem as here.

Ahh, sorry. I made a mistake. It's not the same as 29290. This is about 2.7. Although bpo-20491 is closed but 2.7 seems not patched. Nosy Serhiy.

I checked the help format.
the help_lines' width in python2.7 is different python3.

The width is more likely a hardcode in
https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/2.7/Lib/argparse.py#L165.
, so the help_lines = [u'This is a very long help string. ex: "--s3', u's3://my.bucket/dir1/dir2"'](when joining this help_lines it will add a '\n' in the middle)

Since python 3.3, the width is a dynamic value in
https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Lib/argparse.py#L170
, so the help_lines = ['This is a very long help string. ex: "--s3\xa0s3://my.bucket/dir1/dir2"']

oh, typo error. the help_lines' width in python2.7 is different python3.-->the help_lines' width in python2.7 is different with python3.x

Python 2 is EOL, so I think this issue should be closed.

Python 2 is EOL, so I think this issue should be closed.

+1, if someone need create a PR, we can reopen it again.