diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index bb11d643d..39288bea7 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #4315: For PDF 'howto' documents, ``latex_toplevel_sectioning='part'`` generates
   ``\chapter`` commands 
 * #4214: Two todolist directives break sphinx-1.6.5
+* Fix links to external option docs with intersphinx (refs: #3769)
 
 Testing
 --------
diff --git a/sphinx/domains/std.py b/sphinx/domains/std.py
index 27bb88c96..68baa04aa 100644
--- a/sphinx/domains/std.py
+++ b/sphinx/domains/std.py
@@ -959,12 +959,18 @@ class StandardDomain(Domain):
 
     def get_full_qualified_name(self, node):
         # type: (nodes.Node) -> unicode
-        progname = node.get('std:program')
-        target = node.get('reftarget')
-        if progname is None or target is None:
-            return None
+        if node.get('reftype') == 'option':
+            progname = node.get('std:program')
+            command = ws_re.split(node.get('reftarget'))
+            if progname:
+                command.insert(0, progname)
+            option = command.pop()
+            if command:
+                return '.'.join(['-'.join(command), option])
+            else:
+                return None
         else:
-            return '.'.join([progname, target])
+            return None
 
 
 def setup(app):
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/intersphinx.py b/sphinx/ext/intersphinx.py
index ccd2c9321..9336c4b53 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/intersphinx.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/intersphinx.py
@@ -304,6 +304,7 @@ def missing_reference(app, env, node, contnode):
             in_set = setname
             to_try.append((inventories.named_inventory[setname], newtarget))
             if domain:
+                node['reftarget'] = newtarget
                 full_qualified_name = env.get_domain(domain).get_full_qualified_name(node)
                 if full_qualified_name:
                     to_try.append((inventories.named_inventory[setname], full_qualified_name))
diff --git a/tests/test_ext_intersphinx.py b/tests/test_ext_intersphinx.py
index 371f296ea..a978928d4 100644
--- a/tests/test_ext_intersphinx.py
+++ b/tests/test_ext_intersphinx.py
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ def test_missing_reference_stddomain(tempdir, app, status, warning):
     inv_file = tempdir / 'inventory'
     inv_file.write_bytes(inventory_v2)
     app.config.intersphinx_mapping = {
-        'https://docs.python.org/': inv_file,
+        'cmd': ('https://docs.python.org/', inv_file),
     }
     app.config.intersphinx_cache_limit = 0
 
@@ -213,6 +213,12 @@ def test_missing_reference_stddomain(tempdir, app, status, warning):
     rn = missing_reference(app, app.env, node, contnode)
     assert rn.astext() == 'ls -l'
 
+    # refers inventory by name
+    kwargs = {}
+    node, contnode = fake_node('std', 'option', 'cmd:ls -l', '-l', **kwargs)
+    rn = missing_reference(app, app.env, node, contnode)
+    assert rn.astext() == '-l'
+
 
 @pytest.mark.sphinx('html', testroot='ext-intersphinx-cppdomain')
 def test_missing_reference_cppdomain(tempdir, app, status, warning):