diff --git a/Lib/getopt.py b/Lib/getopt.py
index 04e881ec73d..f76d3deb680 100644
--- a/Lib/getopt.py
+++ b/Lib/getopt.py
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ def do_longs(opts, opt, longopts, args):
             if not args:
                 raise GetoptError('option --%s requires argument' % opt, opt)
             optarg, args = args[0], args[1:]
-    elif optarg:
+    elif optarg is not None:
         raise GetoptError('option --%s must not have an argument' % opt, opt)
     opts.append(('--' + opt, optarg or ''))
     return opts, args
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_getopt.py b/Lib/test/test_getopt.py
index 36d1688b03f..4967388c47b 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_getopt.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_getopt.py
@@ -171,6 +171,12 @@ class GetoptTests(unittest.TestCase):
         m = types.ModuleType("libreftest", s)
         run_doctest(m, verbose)
 
+    def test_issue4629(self):
+        longopts, shortopts = getopt.getopt(['--help='], '', ['help='])
+        self.assertEquals(longopts, [('--help', '')])
+        longopts, shortopts = getopt.getopt(['--help=x'], '', ['help='])
+        self.assertEquals(longopts, [('--help', 'x')])
+        self.assertRaises(getopt.GetoptError, getopt.getopt, ['--help='], '', ['help'])
 
 def test_main():
     run_unittest(GetoptTests)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 23a52d0ea04..4856c795490 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -81,6 +81,10 @@ C-API
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #4629: getopt raises an error if an argument ends with = whereas getopt
+  doesn't except a value (eg. --help= is rejected if getopt uses ['help='] long
+  options).
+
 - Issue #7895: platform.mac_ver() no longer crashes after calling os.fork()
 
 - Issue #5395: array.fromfile() would raise a spurious EOFError when an