diff --git a/tlmisc/optcomplete/optcomplete.py b/tlmisc/optcomplete/optcomplete.py
index 9b2ff730c..11d495896 100644
--- a/tlmisc/optcomplete/optcomplete.py
+++ b/tlmisc/optcomplete/optcomplete.py
@@ -229,6 +229,19 @@ def get_comp_words():
             cwords.append(os.environ[cw])
     return cwords
 
+def determine_option_completer(option, completer, optarg):
+    if option.nargs > 0:
+        optarg = True
+        if hasattr(option, 'completer'):
+            completer = option.completer
+        else:
+            completer = opt_completer
+    # Warn user at least, it could help him figure out the problem.
+    elif hasattr(option, 'completer'):
+        raise SystemExit("Error: optparse option with a completer "
+                         "does not take arguments: %s" % str(option))
+    return (completer, optarg)
+
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
 def autocomplete( parser,
@@ -340,17 +353,32 @@ def autocomplete( parser,
             # The following line change solves the issue when trying to
             # complete more options after one that doesn't take any args.
             if option and option.nargs != None:
-                if option.nargs > 0:
-                    optarg = True
-                    if hasattr(option, 'completer'):
-                        completer = option.completer
-                    else:
-                        completer = opt_completer
-                # Warn user at least, it could help him figure out the problem.
-                elif hasattr(option, 'completer'):
-                    raise SystemExit(
-                        "Error: optparse option with a completer "
-                        "does not take arguments: %s" % str(option))
+                (completer, optarg) = determine_option_completer(
+                    option, completer, optarg)
+
+            # Prev starts with '-' but no corresponding option could be
+            # identified. This is likely due to squashed short opts as in -a -b
+            # -c -> -abc. Loop through individual short opts to see if more than
+            # one of them takes arguments, in which case we don't try to
+            # complete since it's not unambiguous which option completer to use.
+            elif not option and not prev.startswith('--'):
+
+                n = 0
+                for so in tuple(prev.replace('-','')):
+                    short_option = parser.get_option("-%s" % so)
+
+                    if short_option:
+                        if short_option.nargs == None or \
+                           short_option.nargs == 0:
+                            continue
+                        else:
+                            (completer, optarg) = determine_option_completer(
+                                short_option, completer, optarg)
+                            n += 1
+
+                if n > 1:
+                    sys.exit(exit_code)
+
     except KeyError:
         pass