diff --git a/oslo_config/cfg.py b/oslo_config/cfg.py
index 5b7ca5c6..8ed5ecf4 100644
--- a/oslo_config/cfg.py
+++ b/oslo_config/cfg.py
@@ -1718,10 +1718,13 @@ class _CachedArgumentParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
         # option and then sort the values slice.
         for container, values in six.iteritems(self._args_cache):
             index = 0
+            has_positional = False
             for index, argument in enumerate(values):
                 if not argument['args'][0].startswith('-'):
+                    has_positional = True
                     break
-            values[:index] = sorted(values[:index], key=lambda x: x['args'])
+            size = index if has_positional else len(values)
+            values[:size] = sorted(values[:size], key=lambda x: x['args'])
             for argument in values:
                 try:
                     container.add_argument(*argument['args'],
diff --git a/oslo_config/tests/test_cfg.py b/oslo_config/tests/test_cfg.py
index 9470dcc6..2bd32651 100644
--- a/oslo_config/tests/test_cfg.py
+++ b/oslo_config/tests/test_cfg.py
@@ -146,8 +146,8 @@ class HelpTestCase(BaseTestCase):
 
     def test_print_sorted_help(self):
         f = moves.StringIO()
-        self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('zba'))
         self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('abc'))
+        self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('zba'))
         self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('ghi'))
         self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('deb'))
         self.conf([])
@@ -159,6 +159,20 @@ class HelpTestCase(BaseTestCase):
         list = [abc, deb, ghi, zba]
         self.assertEqual(sorted(list), list)
 
+    def test_print_sorted_help_with_positionals(self):
+        f = moves.StringIO()
+        self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('pst', positional=True))
+        self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('abc'))
+        self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('zba'))
+        self.conf.register_cli_opt(cfg.StrOpt('ghi'))
+        self.conf([])
+        self.conf.print_help(file=f)
+        zba = f.getvalue().find('--zba')
+        abc = f.getvalue().find('--abc')
+        ghi = f.getvalue().find('--ghi')
+        list = [abc, ghi, zba]
+        self.assertEqual(sorted(list), list)
+
 
 class FindConfigFilesTestCase(BaseTestCase):