diff --git a/tools/nova.bash_completion b/tools/nova.bash_completion
index 7dee3e6d7..fefa79831 100644
--- a/tools/nova.bash_completion
+++ b/tools/nova.bash_completion
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ _nova()
 	prev="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}"
 
 	if [ "x$_nova_opts" == "x" ] ; then
-		nbc="`nova bash-completion | sed -e "s/\s-h\s/ /"`"
-		_nova_opts="`echo "$nbc" | sed -e "s/--[a-z0-9_-]*//g" -e "s/\s\s*/ /g"`"
-		_nova_flags="`echo " $nbc" | sed -e "s/ [^-][^-][a-z0-9_-]*//g" -e "s/\s\s*/ /g"`"
-		_nova_opts_exp="`echo "$_nova_opts" | sed -e "s/\s/|/g"`"
+		nbc="`nova bash-completion | sed -e "s/[ 	]+/ /"`"
+		_nova_opts="`echo "$nbc" | sed -e "s/--[a-z0-9_-]*//g" -e "s/[ 	]+/ /g"`"
+		_nova_flags="`echo " $nbc" | sed -e "s/ [^-][^-][a-z0-9_-]*//g" -e "s/[ 	]+/ /g"`"
+		_nova_opts_exp="`echo "$_nova_opts" | sed -e "s/[ 	]/|/g"`"
 	fi
 
 	if [[ " ${COMP_WORDS[@]} " =~ " "($_nova_opts_exp)" " && "$prev" != "help" ]] ; then