我也遇到过类似的问题(Python 2.7.6)。我尝试使用RawTextHelpFormatter将描述部分分解成几行:

parser = ArgumentParser(description="""First paragraph 

                                       Second paragraph

                                       Third paragraph""",  
                                       usage='%(prog)s [OPTIONS]', 
                                       formatter_class=RawTextHelpFormatter)

options = parser.parse_args()

和有:

usage: play-with-argparse.py [OPTIONS]

First paragraph 

                        Second paragraph

                        Third paragraph

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

所以RawTextHelpFormatter不是一个解决方案。因为它打印源代码中出现的描述，保留所有空白字符(为了可读性，我想在源代码中保留额外的制表符，但我不想全部打印它们。此外，raw格式化器不会在行太长时换行，例如超过80个字符)。

感谢@Anton，他给了我正确的方向。但是为了格式化描述部分，该解决方案需要稍作修改。

无论如何，需要自定义格式化器。我扩展了现有的HelpFormatter类，并重写了_fill_text方法，如下所示:

import textwrap as _textwrap
class MultilineFormatter(argparse.HelpFormatter):
    def _fill_text(self, text, width, indent):
        text = self._whitespace_matcher.sub(' ', text).strip()
        paragraphs = text.split('|n ')
        multiline_text = ''
        for paragraph in paragraphs:
            formatted_paragraph = _textwrap.fill(paragraph, width, initial_indent=indent, subsequent_indent=indent) + '\n\n'
            multiline_text = multiline_text + formatted_paragraph
        return multiline_text

与来自argparse模块的原始源代码比较:

def _fill_text(self, text, width, indent):
    text = self._whitespace_matcher.sub(' ', text).strip()
    return _textwrap.fill(text, width, initial_indent=indent,
                                       subsequent_indent=indent)

在原始代码中，整个描述都被包装了。在上面的自定义格式化器中，整个文本被分割成几个块，每个块都是独立格式化的。

借助自定义格式化器:

parser = ArgumentParser(description= """First paragraph 
                                        |n                              
                                        Second paragraph
                                        |n
                                        Third paragraph""",  
                usage='%(prog)s [OPTIONS]',
                formatter_class=MultilineFormatter)

options = parser.parse_args()

输出结果为:

usage: play-with-argparse.py [OPTIONS]

First paragraph

Second paragraph

Third paragraph

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

我也遇到过类似的问题(Python 2.7.6)。我尝试使用RawTextHelpFormatter将描述部分分解成几行:

parser = ArgumentParser(description="""First paragraph 

                                       Second paragraph

                                       Third paragraph""",  
                                       usage='%(prog)s [OPTIONS]', 
                                       formatter_class=RawTextHelpFormatter)

options = parser.parse_args()

和有:

usage: play-with-argparse.py [OPTIONS]

First paragraph 

                        Second paragraph

                        Third paragraph

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

所以RawTextHelpFormatter不是一个解决方案。因为它打印源代码中出现的描述，保留所有空白字符(为了可读性，我想在源代码中保留额外的制表符，但我不想全部打印它们。此外，raw格式化器不会在行太长时换行，例如超过80个字符)。

感谢@Anton，他给了我正确的方向。但是为了格式化描述部分，该解决方案需要稍作修改。

无论如何，需要自定义格式化器。我扩展了现有的HelpFormatter类，并重写了_fill_text方法，如下所示:

import textwrap as _textwrap
class MultilineFormatter(argparse.HelpFormatter):
    def _fill_text(self, text, width, indent):
        text = self._whitespace_matcher.sub(' ', text).strip()
        paragraphs = text.split('|n ')
        multiline_text = ''
        for paragraph in paragraphs:
            formatted_paragraph = _textwrap.fill(paragraph, width, initial_indent=indent, subsequent_indent=indent) + '\n\n'
            multiline_text = multiline_text + formatted_paragraph
        return multiline_text

与来自argparse模块的原始源代码比较:

def _fill_text(self, text, width, indent):
    text = self._whitespace_matcher.sub(' ', text).strip()
    return _textwrap.fill(text, width, initial_indent=indent,
                                       subsequent_indent=indent)

在原始代码中，整个描述都被包装了。在上面的自定义格式化器中，整个文本被分割成几个块，每个块都是独立格式化的。

借助自定义格式化器:

parser = ArgumentParser(description= """First paragraph 
                                        |n                              
                                        Second paragraph
                                        |n
                                        Third paragraph""",  
                usage='%(prog)s [OPTIONS]',
                formatter_class=MultilineFormatter)

options = parser.parse_args()

输出结果为:

usage: play-with-argparse.py [OPTIONS]

First paragraph

Second paragraph

Third paragraph

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

从上面描述的SmartFomatter开始，我最终得到了这个解决方案:

class SmartFormatter(argparse.HelpFormatter):
    '''
         Custom Help Formatter used to split help text when '\n' was 
         inserted in it.
    '''

    def _split_lines(self, text, width):
        r = []
        for t in text.splitlines(): r.extend(argparse.HelpFormatter._split_lines(self, t, width))
        return r

注意，奇怪的是，传递给顶级解析器的formatter_class参数并没有被sub_parser继承，必须为每个创建的sub_parser再次传递它。

迟到了12年，但我也需要这个。

OP要求在帮助(不是描述)中的新行，因此这里的解决方案实际上并不完全有效，因为如果一行比屏幕宽度长，那么它在包装时失去缩进(被包装到列1而不是保留帮助文本的缩进)，这看起来真的很难看，或空行被吞噬，这是我不想要的，因为我有时需要长帮助文本中的空行。

工作方案如下:

import textwrap

class CustomHelpFormatter(argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter):
    def _split_lines(self, text, width):
        wrapper = textwrap.TextWrapper(width=width)
        lines = []
        for line in text.splitlines():
            if len(line) > width:
                lines.extend(wrapper.wrap(line))
            else:
                lines.append(line)
        return lines

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(formatter_class=CustomArgumentFormatter)

Bernd的回答非常有用，但不适用于参数帮助字符串。下面是它的一个扩展，适用于所有的帮助文本(遵循RawTextHelpFormatter的例子)。

WrappedNewlineFormatter是他最初的RawFormatter, WrappedNewlineFormatter将额外包装参数。

import argparse
import textwrap

class DescriptionWrappedNewlineFormatter(argparse.HelpFormatter):
    """An argparse formatter that:
    * preserves newlines (like argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter),
    * removes leading indent (great for multiline strings),
    * and applies reasonable text wrapping.

    Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/64102901/79125
    """
    def _fill_text(self, text, width, indent):
        # Strip the indent from the original python definition that plagues most of us.
        text = textwrap.dedent(text)
        text = textwrap.indent(text, indent)  # Apply any requested indent.
        text = text.splitlines()  # Make a list of lines
        text = [textwrap.fill(line, width) for line in text]  # Wrap each line
        text = "\n".join(text)  # Join the lines again
        return text


class WrappedNewlineFormatter(DescriptionWrappedNewlineFormatter):
    """An argparse formatter that:
    * preserves newlines (like argparse.RawTextHelpFormatter),
    * removes leading indent and applies reasonable text wrapping (like DescriptionWrappedNewlineFormatter),
    * applies to all help text (description, arguments, epilogue).
    """
    def _split_lines(self, text, width):
        # Allow multiline strings to have common leading indentation.
        text = textwrap.dedent(text)
        text = text.splitlines()
        lines = []
        for line in text:
            wrapped_lines = textwrap.fill(line, width).splitlines()
            lines.extend(subline for subline in wrapped_lines)
            if line:
                lines.append("")  # Preserve line breaks.
        return lines


if __name__ == "__main__":
    def demo_formatter(formatter):
        parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
            description="""
                A program that does things.
                Lots of description that describes how the program works.

                very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped.

                existing wrapping will be preserved if within width. existing
                wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping will be preserved.
                existing wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping will be
                preserved. existing wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping
                will be preserved. existing wrapping is preserved unless it goes too long for the display width.
                """,
            formatter_class=formatter,
        )
        parser.add_argument(
            "--option",
            choices=[
                "red",
                "blue",
            ],
            help="""
                Lots of text describing different choices.
                    red: a warning colour
                    text on the next line

                    blue: a longer blah blah keeps going going going going going going going going going going
                """,
        )
        print("\n\nDemo for {}\n".format(formatter.__name__))
        parser.print_help()

    demo_formatter(DescriptionWrappedNewlineFormatter)
    demo_formatter(WrappedNewlineFormatter)

WrappedNewlineFormatter的演示输出

usage: arg.py [-h] [--option {red,blue}]

A program that does things.
Lots of description that describes how the program works.

very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are
wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long
lines are wrapped.

existing wrapping will be preserved if within width. existing
wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping will be preserved.
existing wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping will be
preserved. existing wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping
will be preserved. existing wrapping is preserved unless it goes too long for
the display width.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
                       
  --option {red,blue}  Lots of text describing different choices.
                       
                           red: a warning colour
                       
                           text on the next line
                       
                           blue: a longer blah blah keeps going going going
                       going going going going going going going
                       

DescriptionWrappedNewlineFormatter的演示输出

usage: arg.py [-h] [--option {red,blue}]

A program that does things.
Lots of description that describes how the program works.

very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are
wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long lines are wrapped. very long
lines are wrapped.

existing wrapping will be preserved if within width. existing
wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping will be preserved.
existing wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping will be
preserved. existing wrapping is preserved. existing wrapping
will be preserved. existing wrapping is preserved unless it goes too long for
the display width.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --option {red,blue}  Lots of text describing different choices. red: a
                       warning colour text on the next line blue: a longer
                       blah blah keeps going going going going going going
                       going going going going
                       ```

尝试使用RawTextHelpFormatter来保存所有的格式:

from argparse import RawTextHelpFormatter
parser = ArgumentParser(description='test', formatter_class=RawTextHelpFormatter)

它类似于RawDescriptionHelpFormatter，但不是只应用于描述和epilog, RawTextHelpFormatter也应用于所有帮助文本(包括参数)。