diff --git a/builtin/fetch.c b/builtin/fetch.c
index 9d58dc0a8af15d..3cca5681735c83 100644
--- a/builtin/fetch.c
+++ b/builtin/fetch.c
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ static int prune = -1; /* unspecified */
 #define PRUNE_BY_DEFAULT 0 /* do we prune by default? */
 
 static int all, append, dry_run, force, keep, multiple, update_head_ok, verbosity, deepen_relative;
-static int progress = -1, recurse_submodules = RECURSE_SUBMODULES_DEFAULT;
+static int progress = -1;
 static int tags = TAGS_DEFAULT, unshallow, update_shallow, deepen;
 static int max_children = -1;
 static enum transport_family family;
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ static struct strbuf default_rla = STRBUF_INIT;
 static struct transport *gtransport;
 static struct transport *gsecondary;
 static const char *submodule_prefix = "";
-static const char *recurse_submodules_default;
+static int recurse_submodules = RECURSE_SUBMODULES_DEFAULT;
+static int recurse_submodules_default = RECURSE_SUBMODULES_DEFAULT;
 static int shown_url = 0;
 static int refmap_alloc, refmap_nr;
 static const char **refmap_array;
@@ -123,9 +124,11 @@ static struct option builtin_fetch_options[] = {
 		   PARSE_OPT_NONEG | PARSE_OPT_NOARG, NULL, 1 },
 	{ OPTION_STRING, 0, "submodule-prefix", &submodule_prefix, N_("dir"),
 		   N_("prepend this to submodule path output"), PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN },
-	{ OPTION_STRING, 0, "recurse-submodules-default",
-		   &recurse_submodules_default, NULL,
-		   N_("default mode for recursion"), PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN },
+	{ OPTION_CALLBACK, 0, "recurse-submodules-default",
+		   &recurse_submodules_default, N_("on-demand"),
+		   N_("default for recursive fetching of submodules "
+		      "(lower priority than config files)"),
+		   PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN, option_fetch_parse_recurse_submodules },
 	OPT_BOOL(0, "update-shallow", &update_shallow,
 		 N_("accept refs that update .git/shallow")),
 	{ OPTION_CALLBACK, 0, "refmap", NULL, N_("refmap"),
@@ -1333,10 +1336,8 @@ int cmd_fetch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		deepen = 1;
 
 	if (recurse_submodules != RECURSE_SUBMODULES_OFF) {
-		if (recurse_submodules_default) {
-			int arg = parse_fetch_recurse_submodules_arg("--recurse-submodules-default", recurse_submodules_default);
-			set_config_fetch_recurse_submodules(arg);
-		}
+		if (recurse_submodules_default != RECURSE_SUBMODULES_DEFAULT)
+			set_config_fetch_recurse_submodules(recurse_submodules_default);
 		gitmodules_config();
 		git_config(submodule_config, NULL);
 	}