diff --git a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
index e7b39ad244..b4526ca246 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rebase.txt
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
 +
 See also INCOMPATIBLE OPTIONS below.
 
---empty={drop,keep,ask}::
+--empty=(drop|keep|ask)::
 	How to handle commits that are not empty to start and are not
 	clean cherry-picks of any upstream commit, but which become
 	empty after rebasing (because they contain a subset of already
@@ -695,7 +695,7 @@ be dropped automatically with `--no-keep-empty`).
 Similar to the apply backend, by default the merge backend drops
 commits that become empty unless `-i`/`--interactive` is specified (in
 which case it stops and asks the user what to do).  The merge backend
-also has an `--empty={drop,keep,ask}` option for changing the behavior
+also has an `--empty=(drop|keep|ask)` option for changing the behavior
 of handling commits that become empty.
 
 Directory rename detection
diff --git a/builtin/am.c b/builtin/am.c
index 8bde034fae..57af49ae8f 100644
--- a/builtin/am.c
+++ b/builtin/am.c
@@ -2419,7 +2419,7 @@ int cmd_am(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		{ OPTION_STRING, 'S', "gpg-sign", &state.sign_commit, N_("key-id"),
 		  N_("GPG-sign commits"),
 		  PARSE_OPT_OPTARG, NULL, (intptr_t) "" },
-		OPT_CALLBACK_F(STOP_ON_EMPTY_COMMIT, "empty", &state.empty_type, "{stop,drop,keep}",
+		OPT_CALLBACK_F(0, "empty", &state.empty_type, "(stop|drop|keep)",
 		  N_("how to handle empty patches"),
 		  PARSE_OPT_NONEG, am_option_parse_empty),
 		OPT_HIDDEN_BOOL(0, "rebasing", &state.rebasing,
diff --git a/builtin/rebase.c b/builtin/rebase.c
index 50cb85751f..8718e05403 100644
--- a/builtin/rebase.c
+++ b/builtin/rebase.c
@@ -1147,7 +1147,7 @@ int cmd_rebase(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 				 "instead of ignoring them"),
 			      1, PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
 		OPT_RERERE_AUTOUPDATE(&options.allow_rerere_autoupdate),
-		OPT_CALLBACK_F(0, "empty", &options, "{drop,keep,ask}",
+		OPT_CALLBACK_F(0, "empty", &options, "(drop|keep|ask)",
 			       N_("how to handle commits that become empty"),
 			       PARSE_OPT_NONEG, parse_opt_empty),
 		OPT_CALLBACK_F('k', "keep-empty", &options, NULL,