Don't output spurious lines if the truncated help text is actually empty

CHANGES.rst

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Unreleased
 -   Improve type annotations for pyright type checker. :issue:`2268`
 -   Improve responsiveness of ``click.clear()``. :issue:`2284`
 -   Improve command name detection when using Shiv or PEX. :issue:`2332`
+-   Avoid showing empty lines if command help text is empty. :issue:`2368`
 
 
 Version 8.1.3

src/click/core.py

@@ -1360,13 +1360,16 @@ def format_help(self, ctx: Context, formatter: HelpFormatter) -> None:
 
     def format_help_text(self, ctx: Context, formatter: HelpFormatter) -> None:
         """Writes the help text to the formatter if it exists."""
-        text = self.help if self.help is not None else ""
+        if self.help is not None:
+            # truncate the help text to the first form feed
+            text = inspect.cleandoc(self.help).partition("\f")[0]
+        else:
+            text = ""
 
         if self.deprecated:
             text = _("(Deprecated) {text}").format(text=text)
 
         if text:
-            text = inspect.cleandoc(text).partition("\f")[0]
             formatter.write_paragraph()
 
             with formatter.indentation():

tests/test_commands.py

@@ -95,20 +95,6 @@ def long():
     )
 
 
-def test_help_truncation(runner):
-    @click.command()
-    def cli():
-        """This is a command with truncated help.
-        \f
-
-        This text should be truncated.
-        """
-
-    result = runner.invoke(cli, ["--help"])
-    assert result.exit_code == 0
-    assert "This is a command with truncated help." in result.output
-
-
 def test_no_args_is_help(runner):
     @click.command(no_args_is_help=True)
     def cli():

tests/test_formatting.py

@@ -296,6 +296,26 @@ def cli(ctx):
     ]
 
 
+def test_truncating_docstring_no_help(runner):
+    @click.command()
+    @click.pass_context
+    def cli(ctx):
+        """
+        \f
+
+        This text should be truncated.
+        """
+
+    result = runner.invoke(cli, ["--help"], terminal_width=60)
+    assert not result.exception
+    assert result.output.splitlines() == [
+        "Usage: cli [OPTIONS]",
+        "",
+        "Options:",
+        "  --help  Show this message and exit.",
+    ]
+
+
 def test_removing_multiline_marker(runner):
     @click.group()
     def cli():