I think a dealt with all of Mark's comments, even "notmuch help
--help".

I ended up creating a new function for the places where we want to
process _only_ the shared options (config, setup, and help)

diff --git a/notmuch-client.h b/notmuch-client.h
index ab0d188..78680aa 100644
--- a/notmuch-client.h
+++ b/notmuch-client.h
@@ -467,5 +467,7 @@ notmuch_database_dump (notmuch_database_t *notmuch,
 
 #include "command-line-arguments.h"
 extern const notmuch_opt_desc_t  notmuch_shared_options [];
-void notmuch_process_shared_options (const char* help_name);
+void notmuch_process_shared_options (const char* subcommand_name);
+int notmuch_minimal_options (const char* subcommand_name,
+			     int argc, char **argv);
 #endif
diff --git a/notmuch-config.c b/notmuch-config.c
index f2cd6a8..9348278 100644
--- a/notmuch-config.c
+++ b/notmuch-config.c
@@ -874,17 +874,10 @@ notmuch_config_command (notmuch_config_t *config, int argc, char *argv[])
     int ret;
     int opt_index;
 
-    notmuch_opt_desc_t options[] = {
-	{ NOTMUCH_OPT_INHERIT, (void *) &notmuch_shared_options, NULL, 0, 0 },
-	{ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 }
-    };
-
-    opt_index = parse_arguments (argc, argv, options, 1);
+    opt_index = notmuch_minimal_options ("config", argc, argv);
     if (opt_index < 0)
 	return EXIT_FAILURE;
 
-    notmuch_process_shared_options (argv[0]);
-
     /* skip at least subcommand argument */
     argc-= opt_index;
     argv+= opt_index;
diff --git a/notmuch-search.c b/notmuch-search.c
index 994ae58..b89a17e 100644
--- a/notmuch-search.c
+++ b/notmuch-search.c
@@ -740,6 +740,7 @@ notmuch_address_command (notmuch_config_t *config, int argc, char *argv[])
 				  { "false", NOTMUCH_EXCLUDE_FALSE },
 				  { 0, 0 } } },
 	{ NOTMUCH_OPT_INHERIT, (void *) &common_options, NULL, 0, 0 },
+	{ NOTMUCH_OPT_INHERIT, (void *) &notmuch_shared_options, NULL, 0, 0 },
 	{ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 }
     };
 
@@ -747,6 +748,8 @@ notmuch_address_command (notmuch_config_t *config, int argc, char *argv[])
     if (opt_index < 0)
 	return EXIT_FAILURE;
 
+    notmuch_process_shared_options (argv[0]);
+
     if (! (ctx->output & (OUTPUT_SENDER | OUTPUT_RECIPIENTS)))
 	ctx->output |= OUTPUT_SENDER;
 
diff --git a/notmuch-setup.c b/notmuch-setup.c
index 21d074a..7dd5822 100644
--- a/notmuch-setup.c
+++ b/notmuch-setup.c
@@ -133,7 +133,6 @@ notmuch_setup_command (notmuch_config_t *config,
     size_t new_tags_len;
     const char **search_exclude_tags;
     size_t search_exclude_tags_len;
-    int opt_index;
 
 #define prompt(format, ...)					\
     do {							\
@@ -146,18 +145,9 @@ notmuch_setup_command (notmuch_config_t *config,
 	chomp_newline (response);				\
     } while (0)
 
-    notmuch_opt_desc_t options[] = {
-	{ NOTMUCH_OPT_INHERIT, (void *) &notmuch_shared_options, NULL, 0, 0 },
-	{ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 }
-    };
-
-    opt_index = parse_arguments (argc, argv, options, 1);
-    if (opt_index < 0)
+    if (notmuch_minimal_options ("setup", argc, argv) < 0)
 	return EXIT_FAILURE;
 
-    /* We can't use argv here as it is sometimes NULL */
-    notmuch_process_shared_options ("setup");
-
     if (notmuch_config_is_new (config))
 	welcome_message_pre_setup ();
 
diff --git a/notmuch.c b/notmuch.c
index c7f8c8f..2198b73 100644
--- a/notmuch.c
+++ b/notmuch.c
@@ -59,18 +59,40 @@ const notmuch_opt_desc_t notmuch_shared_options [] = {
  * notmuch_process_shared_options (subcommand_name);
  */
 void
-notmuch_process_shared_options (const char *help_name) {
+notmuch_process_shared_options (const char *subcommand_name) {
     if (print_version) {
 	printf ("notmuch " STRINGIFY(NOTMUCH_VERSION) "\n");
 	exit (EXIT_SUCCESS);
     }
 
     if (print_help) {
-	int ret = _help_for (help_name);
+	int ret = _help_for (subcommand_name);
 	exit (ret);
     }
 }
 
+/* This is suitable for subcommands that do not actually open the
+ * database.
+ */
+int notmuch_minimal_options (const char *subcommand_name,
+				  int argc, char **argv)
+{
+    int opt_index;
+
+    notmuch_opt_desc_t options[] = {
+	{ NOTMUCH_OPT_INHERIT, (void *) &notmuch_shared_options, NULL, 0, 0 },
+	{ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 }
+    };
+
+    opt_index = parse_arguments (argc, argv, options, 1);
+
+    if (opt_index < 0)
+	return -1;
+
+    /* We can't use argv here as it is sometimes NULL */
+    notmuch_process_shared_options (subcommand_name);
+    return opt_index;
+}
 
 static command_t commands[] = {
     { NULL, notmuch_command, TRUE,
@@ -250,7 +272,15 @@ _help_for (const char *topic_name)
 static int
 notmuch_help_command (unused (notmuch_config_t * config), int argc, char *argv[])
 {
-    argc--; argv++; /* Ignore "help" */
+    int opt_index;
+
+    opt_index = notmuch_minimal_options ("help", argc, argv);
+    if (opt_index < 0)
+	return EXIT_FAILURE;
+
+    /* skip at least subcommand argument */
+    argc-= opt_index;
+    argv+= opt_index;
 
     if (argc == 0) {
 	return _help_for (NULL);
diff --git a/test/random-corpus.c b/test/random-corpus.c
index 6c467bb..b377eb4 100644
--- a/test/random-corpus.c
+++ b/test/random-corpus.c
@@ -125,6 +125,14 @@ notmuch_process_shared_options (unused (const char *dummy))
 }
 
 int
+notmuch_minimal_options (unused (const char *subcommand),
+			 unused (int argc),
+			 unused (char **argv))
+{
+    return 0;
+}
+
+int
 main (int argc, char **argv)
 {