--- a/mercurial/cmdutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
@@ -248,7 +248,12 @@ def parseconfig(config):
     return parsed
 
 def earlygetopt(aliases, args):
-    """Return list of values for a option (with aliases) in given order"""
+    """Return list of values for a option (with aliases) in given order
+
+    Short option aliases have to occur before long aliases, e.g.:
+    earlygetopt(["-R", "--repository", "--repo"], args)
+    (this is not checked!)
+    """
     try:
         argcount = args.index("--")
     except ValueError:
@@ -258,6 +263,22 @@ def earlygetopt(aliases, args):
     while pos < argcount:
         valuepos = argcount
         for opt in aliases:
+            # short option can have no spaces, e.g. hg log -qRfoo:
+            if len(opt) == 2:
+                i = argcount
+                while i > 0:
+                    i -= 1
+                    arg = args[i]
+                    if len(arg) > 2 and arg[0] == '-' and arg[1] != '-':
+                        optpos = arg.find(opt[1])
+                        # split Rfoo -> R foo
+                        if 0 < optpos < len(arg)-1:
+                            args[i:i+1] = [arg[:optpos+1], arg[optpos+1:]]
+                            argcount += 1
+                        # split -qR -> -q -R
+                        if optpos > 1:
+                            args[i:i+1] = [arg[:optpos], opt]
+                            argcount += 1
             # find next occurance of current alias
             try:
                 candidate = args.index(opt, pos, argcount) + 1