Add `submodules` option for git fetching.

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/fetch_strategy.py b/lib/spack/spack/fetch_strategy.py
index 38133ee0ca..bcb33bd0e6 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/fetch_strategy.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/fetch_strategy.py
@@ -366,8 +366,8 @@ class CacheURLFetchStrategy(URLFetchStrategy):
             try:
                 self.check()
             except ChecksumError:
-                # Future fetchers will assume they don't need to download if the
-                # file remains
+                # Future fetchers will assume they don't need to
+                # download if the file remains
                 os.remove(self.archive_file)
                 raise
 
@@ -517,6 +517,7 @@ class GitFetchStrategy(VCSFetchStrategy):
         super(GitFetchStrategy, self).__init__(
             'git', 'tag', 'branch', 'commit', **forwarded_args)
         self._git = None
+        self.submodules = kwargs.get('submodules', False)
 
     @property
     def git_version(self):
@@ -595,6 +596,10 @@ class GitFetchStrategy(VCSFetchStrategy):
                 self.git('pull', '--tags', ignore_errors=1)
                 self.git('checkout', self.tag)
 
+        # Init submodules if the user asked for them.
+        if self.submodules:
+            self.git('submodule', 'update', '--init')
+
     def archive(self, destination):
         super(GitFetchStrategy, self).archive(destination, exclude='.git')