diff --git a/osc/cmdln.py b/osc/cmdln.py
index e3fafd7b..069677b4 100644
--- a/osc/cmdln.py
+++ b/osc/cmdln.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ A modern, lightweight alternative to cmdln.py from https://github.com/trentm/cmd
 import argparse
 import inspect
 import sys
+import textwrap
 
 
 def option(*args, **kwargs):
@@ -78,6 +79,19 @@ def hide(value=True):
 
 
 class HelpFormatter(argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter):
+    def _split_lines(self, text, width):
+        # remove the leading and trailing whitespaces to avoid printing unwanted blank lines
+        text = text.strip()
+
+        result = []
+        for line in text.splitlines():
+            if not line.strip():
+                # textwrap normally returns [] on a string that contains only whitespaces; we want [""] to print a blank line
+                result.append("")
+            else:
+                result.extend(textwrap.wrap(line, width))
+        return result
+
     def _format_action(self, action):
         if isinstance(action, argparse._SubParsersAction):
             parts = []
diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index 9a7923a6..10113b3c 100644
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -7172,7 +7172,14 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
     @cmdln.option('--build-opt', metavar='OPT', action='append',
                   help='pass option OPT to the build command')
     @cmdln.option('--buildtool-opt', metavar='OPT', action='append',
-                  help='pass option OPT to the build tool command (rpmbuild)')
+                    help=textwrap.dedent(
+                        """
+                        pass option OPT to the build tool command (rpmbuild), for example:
+                          * don't clean build environment after a successful build:
+                            --buildtool-opt=--noclean
+                        """
+                    ),
+                 )
     @cmdln.option('--userootforbuild', '--login-as-root', action='store_true',
                   help='Run build or shell as root. The default is to build as '
                   'unprivileged user. Note that a line "# norootforbuild" '