I'd like to add this here as an answer to @Zangdak and to add my findings on the same problem.

If you do not call #setArgs(int) then a RuntimeException will occur. When you know the exact maximum amount of arguments to this option, then set this specific value. When this value is not known, the class Option has a constant for it: Option.UNLIMITED_VALUES

This would change gerrytans answer to the following:

Options options = new Options();
Option option = new Option("c", "c desc");
// Set option c to take 1 to oo arguments
option.setArgs(Option.UNLIMITED_VALUES);
options.addOption(option);

This works for me (other parsers can be derived, too):

public class ExtendedGnuParser extends GnuParser {

    private boolean ignoreUnrecognizedOption;

    public ExtendedGnuParser(final boolean ignoreUnrecognizedOption) {
        this.ignoreUnrecognizedOption = ignoreUnrecognizedOption;
    }

    @Override
    protected void processOption(final String arg, final ListIterator iter) throws     ParseException {
        boolean hasOption = getOptions().hasOption(arg);

        if (hasOption || !ignoreUnrecognizedOption) {
            super.processOption(arg, iter);
        }
    }

}

Looks to me like you could probably use an OptionGroup which is described as:

A group of mutually exclusive options.

So you would build one OptionGroup with your -h and one with all of the other options. Then add both OptionGroups.

Added

Some research suggests using multiple parse attempts:

        Options mainOptions = new Options();

        Option opt_a = Option.builder("a")
                .argName("A Option")
                .required(true)
                .longOpt("a-option")
                .desc("First option")
                .build();

        Option opt_b = Option.builder("b")
                .argName("B Option")
                .required(true)
                .longOpt("b-option")
                .desc("Second option")
                .build();
        mainOptions.addOption(opt_a);
        mainOptions.addOption(opt_b);

        Options helpOptions = new Options();
        Option opt_h = Option.builder("h")
                .argName("Help")
                .longOpt("help")
                .desc("Shows this help")
                .build();
        helpOptions.addOption(opt_h);
        CommandLineParser parser = new DefaultParser();
        try {
            CommandLine cmds = parser.parse(helpOptions, args, true);
            // have they specified a help option?
            if (cmds.getOptions().length == 0) {
                // No! Try normal options.
                cmds = parser.parse(mainOptions, args);
            } else {
                // They specified a help option.
            }
            //...
        } catch (ParseException e) {
            System.err.println("Error parsing command line options");
            System.err.println(e.getMessage());
            System.exit(1);
        }