diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@ setup_options = dict(
 
 # For these actions, NumPy is not required. We want them to succeed without,
 # for example when pip is used to install seqlearn without NumPy present.
-NO_NUMPY_ACTIONS = ('egg_info', '--version', 'clean')
-if len(sys.argv) < 2 or (not sys.argv[1:].startswith('--help')
-                         and sys.argv[1] not in NO_NUMPY_ACTIONS):
+NO_NUMPY_ACTIONS = ('--help-commands', 'egg_info', '--version', 'clean')
+if not (len(sys.argv) >= 2 and ('--help' in sys.argv[1:]
+                                or sys.argv[1] in NO_NUMPY_ACTIONS)):
     import numpy
     setup_options['include_dirs'] = [numpy.get_include()]
FIX setup.py numpy-awareness

XXX [@larsmans]: I screwed up this commit by @kmike,
so cherry-picking it again.