diff --git a/completions/xmllint b/completions/xmllint
index 8095dae5..64f53c26 100644
--- a/completions/xmllint
+++ b/completions/xmllint
@@ -35,9 +35,8 @@ _xmllint()
     esac
 
     if [[ "$cur" == -* ]]; then
-        COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W '$( xmllint --help 2>&1 | \
-            sed -ne "s/^[[:space:]]*\(--[^[:space:]:]*\).*/\1/p" ) \
-            -o' -- "$cur" ) )
+        COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W '$( _parse_help "$1" )' -- "$cur" ) )
+        COMPREPLY=( "${COMPREPLY[@]%:}" )
         return 0
     fi