diff --git a/sphinx/cmdline.py b/sphinx/cmdline.py
index 650f88b445..a9c920c23c 100644
--- a/sphinx/cmdline.py
+++ b/sphinx/cmdline.py
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ def main(argv):
 
     # parse options
     try:
-        opts, args = parser.parse_args(list(argv[1:]))
+        opts, args = parser.parse_args(argv)
     except SystemExit as err:
         return err.code
 
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autosummary/generate.py b/sphinx/ext/autosummary/generate.py
index 3dd4a2fcfd..3617d0a0b2 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autosummary/generate.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autosummary/generate.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ if False:
     from sphinx.environment import BuildEnvironment  # NOQA
 
 
-def main(argv=sys.argv):
+def main(argv=sys.argv[1:]):
     # type: (List[str]) -> None
     usage = """%prog [OPTIONS] SOURCEFILE ..."""
     p = optparse.OptionParser(usage.strip())
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ def main(argv=sys.argv):
     p.add_option("-i", "--imported-members", action="store_true",
                  dest="imported_members", default=False,
                  help="Document imported members (default: %default)")
-    options, args = p.parse_args(argv[1:])
+    options, args = p.parse_args(argv)
 
     if len(args) < 1:
         p.error('no input files given')
diff --git a/sphinx/quickstart.py b/sphinx/quickstart.py
index 50d200e60f..cfa11fc3f8 100644
--- a/sphinx/quickstart.py
+++ b/sphinx/quickstart.py
@@ -570,7 +570,7 @@ class MyFormatter(optparse.IndentedHelpFormatter):
         return "\n".join(result)
 
 
-def main(argv=sys.argv):
+def main(argv=sys.argv[1:]):
     # type: (List[str]) -> int
     if not color_terminal():
         nocolor()
@@ -642,7 +642,7 @@ def main(argv=sys.argv):
 
     # parse options
     try:
-        opts, args = parser.parse_args(argv[1:])
+        opts, args = parser.parse_args(argv)
     except SystemExit as err:
         return err.code