diff --git a/Doc/library/doctest.rst b/Doc/library/doctest.rst
index 200de45..6138e30 100644
--- a/Doc/library/doctest.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/doctest.rst
@@ -495,7 +495,10 @@
 A number of option flags control various aspects of doctest's behavior.
 Symbolic names for the flags are supplied as module constants, which can be
 or'ed together and passed to various functions.  The names can also be used in
-:ref:`doctest directives <doctest-directives>`.
+:ref:`doctest directives <doctest-directives>`, and may be passed to the
+doctest command line interface via the ``-o`` option.
+
+.. versionadded:: 3.4 the ``-o`` command line option
 
 The first group of options define test semantics, controlling aspects of how
 doctest decides whether actual output matches an example's expected output:
@@ -640,6 +643,9 @@
    1.  This flag may be useful during debugging, since examples after the first
    failure won't even produce debugging output.
 
+   The doctest command line accepts the option ``-f`` as a shorthand for ``-o
+   FAIL_FAST``.
+
    .. versionadded:: 3.4
 
 
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.4.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.4.rst
index b003c4e..22e60d9 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.4.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.4.rst
@@ -173,8 +173,15 @@
 doctest
 -------
 
-Added ``FAIL_FAST`` flag to halt test running as soon as the first failure is
-detected.  (Contributed by R. David Murray and Daniel Urban in :issue:`16522`.)
+Added :data:`~doctest.FAIL_FAST` flag to halt test running as soon as the first
+failure is detected.  (Contributed by R. David Murray and Daniel Urban in
+:issue:`16522`.)
+
+Updated the doctest command line interface to use :mod:`argparse`, and added
+``-o`` and ``-f`` options to the interface.  ``-o`` allows doctest options to
+be specified on the command line, and ``-f`` is a shorthand for ``-o
+FAIL_FAST`` (to parallel the similar option supported by the :mod:`unittest`
+CLI).  (Contributed by R. David Murray in :issue:`11390`.)
 
 
 functools
diff --git a/Lib/doctest.py b/Lib/doctest.py
index 1b8a9d4..1d4d329 100644
--- a/Lib/doctest.py
+++ b/Lib/doctest.py
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@
 ]
 
 import __future__
+import argparse
 import difflib
 import inspect
 import linecache
@@ -2708,13 +2709,30 @@
 
 
 def _test():
-    testfiles = [arg for arg in sys.argv[1:] if arg and arg[0] != '-']
-    if not testfiles:
-        name = os.path.basename(sys.argv[0])
-        if '__loader__' in globals():          # python -m
-            name, _ = os.path.splitext(name)
-        print("usage: {0} [-v] file ...".format(name))
-        return 2
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="doctest runner")
+    parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', action='store_true', default=False,
+                        help='print very verbose output for all tests')
+    parser.add_argument('-o', '--option', action='append',
+                        choices=OPTIONFLAGS_BY_NAME.keys(), default=[],
+                        help=('specify a doctest option flag to apply'
+                              ' to the test run; may be specified more'
+                              ' than once to apply multiple options'))
+    parser.add_argument('-f', '--fail-fast', action='store_true',
+                        help=('stop running tests after first failure (this'
+                              ' is a shorthand for -o FAIL_FAST, and is'
+                              ' in addition to any other -o options)'))
+    parser.add_argument('file', nargs='+',
+                        help='file containing the tests to run')
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+    testfiles = args.file
+    # Verbose used to be handled by the "inspect argv" magic in DocTestRunner,
+    # but since we are using argparse we are passing it manually now.
+    verbose = args.verbose
+    options = 0
+    for option in args.option:
+        options |= OPTIONFLAGS_BY_NAME[option]
+    if args.fail_fast:
+        options |= FAIL_FAST
     for filename in testfiles:
         if filename.endswith(".py"):
             # It is a module -- insert its dir into sys.path and try to
@@ -2724,9 +2742,10 @@
             sys.path.insert(0, dirname)
             m = __import__(filename[:-3])
             del sys.path[0]
-            failures, _ = testmod(m)
+            failures, _ = testmod(m, verbose=verbose, optionflags=options)
         else:
-            failures, _ = testfile(filename, module_relative=False)
+            failures, _ = testfile(filename, module_relative=False,
+                                     verbose=verbose, optionflags=options)
         if failures:
             return 1
     return 0
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_doctest.py b/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
index 3e36f19..67785bf 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_doctest.py
@@ -2596,6 +2596,232 @@
     TestResults(failed=1, attempted=1)
     """
 
+def test_CLI(): r"""
+The doctest module can be used to run doctests against an arbitrary file.
+These tests test this CLI functionality.
+
+We'll use the support module's script_helpers for this, and write a test files
+to a temp dir to run the command against.
+
+First, a file with two simple tests and no errors.  We'll run both the
+unadorned doctest command, and the verbose version, and then check the output:
+
+    >>> from test import script_helper
+    >>> with script_helper.temp_dir() as tmpdir:
+    ...     fn = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'myfile.doc')
+    ...     with open(fn, 'w') as f:
+    ...         _ = f.write('This is a very simple test file.\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   >>> 1 + 1\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   2\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   >>> "a"\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write("   'a'\n")
+    ...         _ = f.write('\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('And that is it.\n')
+    ...     rc1, out1, err1 = script_helper.assert_python_ok(
+    ...             '-m', 'doctest', fn)
+    ...     rc2, out2, err2 = script_helper.assert_python_ok(
+    ...             '-m', 'doctest', '-v', fn)
+
+With no arguments and passing tests, we should get no output:
+
+    >>> rc1, out1, err1
+    (0, b'', b'')
+
+With the verbose flag, we should see the test output, but no error output:
+
+    >>> rc2, err2
+    (0, b'')
+    >>> print(out2.decode())
+    Trying:
+        1 + 1
+    Expecting:
+        2
+    ok
+    Trying:
+        "a"
+    Expecting:
+        'a'
+    ok
+    1 items passed all tests:
+       2 tests in myfile.doc
+    2 tests in 1 items.
+    2 passed and 0 failed.
+    Test passed.
+    <BLANKLINE>
+
+Now we'll write a couple files, one with three tests, the other a python module
+with two tests, both of the files having "errors" in the tests that can be made
+non-errors by applying the appropriate doctest options to the run (ELLIPSIS in
+the first file, NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE in the second).  This combination will
+allow to thoroughly test the -f and -o flags, as well as the doctest command's
+ability to process more than one file on the command line and, since the second
+file ends in '.py', its handling of python module files (as opposed to straight
+text files).
+
+    >>> from test import script_helper
+    >>> with script_helper.temp_dir() as tmpdir:
+    ...     fn = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'myfile.doc')
+    ...     with open(fn, 'w') as f:
+    ...         _ = f.write('This is another simple test file.\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   >>> 1 + 1\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   2\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   >>> "abcdef"\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write("   'a...f'\n")
+    ...         _ = f.write('   >>> "ajkml"\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write("   'a...l'\n")
+    ...         _ = f.write('\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('And that is it.\n')
+    ...     fn2 = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'myfile2.py')
+    ...     with open(fn2, 'w') as f:
+    ...         _ = f.write('def test_func():\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   \"\"\"\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('   This is simple python test function.\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('       >>> 1 + 1\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('       2\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write('       >>> "abc   def"\n')
+    ...         _ = f.write("       'abc def'\n")
+    ...         _ = f.write("\n")
+    ...         _ = f.write('   \"\"\"\n')
+    ...     import shutil
+    ...     rc1, out1, err1 = script_helper.assert_python_failure(
+    ...             '-m', 'doctest', fn, fn2)
+    ...     rc2, out2, err2 = script_helper.assert_python_ok(
+    ...             '-m', 'doctest', '-o', 'ELLIPSIS', fn)
+    ...     rc3, out3, err3 = script_helper.assert_python_ok(
+    ...             '-m', 'doctest', '-o', 'ELLIPSIS',
+    ...             '-o', 'NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE', fn, fn2)
+    ...     rc4, out4, err4 = script_helper.assert_python_failure(
+    ...             '-m', 'doctest', '-f', fn, fn2)
+    ...     rc5, out5, err5 = script_helper.assert_python_ok(
+    ...             '-m', 'doctest', '-v', '-o', 'ELLIPSIS',
+    ...             '-o', 'NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE', fn, fn2)
+
+Our first test run will show the errors from the first file (doctest stops if a
+file has errors).  Note that doctest test-run error output appears on stdout,
+not stderr:
+
+    >>> rc1, err1
+    (1, b'')
+    >>> print(out1.decode())                # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
+    **********************************************************************
+    File "...myfile.doc", line 4, in myfile.doc
+    Failed example:
+        "abcdef"
+    Expected:
+        'a...f'
+    Got:
+        'abcdef'
+    **********************************************************************
+    File "...myfile.doc", line 6, in myfile.doc
+    Failed example:
+        "ajkml"
+    Expected:
+        'a...l'
+    Got:
+        'ajkml'
+    **********************************************************************
+    1 items had failures:
+       2 of   3 in myfile.doc
+    ***Test Failed*** 2 failures.
+    <BLANKLINE>
+
+With -o ELLIPSIS specified, the second run, against just the first file, should
+produce no errors, and with -o NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE also specified, neither
+should the third, which ran against both files:
+
+    >>> rc2, out2, err2
+    (0, b'', b'')
+    >>> rc3, out3, err3
+    (0, b'', b'')
+
+The fourth run uses FAIL_FAST, so we should see only one error:
+
+    >>> rc4, err4
+    (1, b'')
+    >>> print(out4.decode())                # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
+    **********************************************************************
+    File "...myfile.doc", line 4, in myfile.doc
+    Failed example:
+        "abcdef"
+    Expected:
+        'a...f'
+    Got:
+        'abcdef'
+    **********************************************************************
+    1 items had failures:
+       1 of   2 in myfile.doc
+    ***Test Failed*** 1 failures.
+    <BLANKLINE>
+
+The fifth test uses verbose with the two options, so we should get verbose
+success output for the tests in both files:
+
+    >>> rc5, err5
+    (0, b'')
+    >>> print(out5.decode())
+    Trying:
+        1 + 1
+    Expecting:
+        2
+    ok
+    Trying:
+        "abcdef"
+    Expecting:
+        'a...f'
+    ok
+    Trying:
+        "ajkml"
+    Expecting:
+        'a...l'
+    ok
+    1 items passed all tests:
+       3 tests in myfile.doc
+    3 tests in 1 items.
+    3 passed and 0 failed.
+    Test passed.
+    Trying:
+        1 + 1
+    Expecting:
+        2
+    ok
+    Trying:
+        "abc   def"
+    Expecting:
+        'abc def'
+    ok
+    1 items had no tests:
+        myfile2
+    1 items passed all tests:
+       2 tests in myfile2.test_func
+    2 tests in 2 items.
+    2 passed and 0 failed.
+    Test passed.
+    <BLANKLINE>
+
+We should also check some typical error cases.
+
+Invalid file name:
+
+    >>> rc, out, err = script_helper.assert_python_failure(
+    ...         '-m', 'doctest', 'nosuchfile')
+    >>> rc, out
+    (1, b'')
+    >>> print(err.decode())                    # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
+    Traceback (most recent call last):
+      ...
+    FileNotFoundError: [Errno ...] No such file or directory: 'nosuchfile'
+
+Invalid doctest option:
+
+    >>> rc, out, err = script_helper.assert_python_failure(
+    ...         '-m', 'doctest', '-o', 'nosuchoption')
+    >>> rc, out
+    (2, b'')
+    >>> print(err.decode())                    # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
+    usage...invalid...nosuchoption...
+
+"""
+
 ######################################################################
 ## Main
 ######################################################################
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 8e0b300..e56c102 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -129,6 +129,9 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #11390: Add -o and -f command line options to the doctest CLI to
+  specify doctest options (and convert it to using argparse).
+
 - Issue #18135: Fix a possible integer overflow in ssl.SSLSocket.write()
   and in ssl.SSLContext.load_cert_chain() for strings and passwords longer than
   2 gigabytes.