diff --git a/doc/pacman.8.txt b/doc/pacman.8.txt
index 3240022d..a362d2cf 100644
--- a/doc/pacman.8.txt
+++ b/doc/pacman.8.txt
@@ -400,6 +400,13 @@ system upgrade and install/upgrade the foo package in the same operation.
 *\--needed*::
 	Don't reinstall the targets that are already up to date.
 
+*\--recursive*::
+	Recursively reinstall all dependencies of the targets. This forces upgrades
+	or reinstalls of all dependencies without requiring explicit version
+	requirements. This is most useful in combination with the '\--needed' flag,
+	which will induce a deep dependency upgrade without any unnecessary
+	reinstalls.
+
 
 Handling Config Files[[HCF]]
 ----------------------------
diff --git a/lib/libalpm/deps.c b/lib/libalpm/deps.c
index 51ae0fb9..992ebe23 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/deps.c
+++ b/lib/libalpm/deps.c
@@ -701,6 +701,12 @@ int _alpm_resolvedeps(alpm_handle_t *handle, alpm_list_t *localpkgs,
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	if(handle->trans->flags & ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_RECURSE) {
+		/* removing local packages from the equation causes the entire dep chain to
+		 * get pulled for each target- e.g., pactree -u output */
+		localpkgs = NULL;
+	}
+
 	/* Create a copy of the packages list, so that it can be restored
 	   on error */
 	packages_copy = alpm_list_copy(*packages);
@@ -753,6 +759,29 @@ int _alpm_resolvedeps(alpm_handle_t *handle, alpm_list_t *localpkgs,
 		alpm_list_free(deps);
 	}
 
+	if(handle->trans->flags & ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_NEEDED) {
+		/* remove any deps that were pulled that match installed version */
+		/* odd loop syntax so we can modify the list as we iterate */
+		i = *packages;
+		while(i) {
+			alpm_pkg_t *tpkg = i->data;
+			alpm_pkg_t *local = _alpm_db_get_pkgfromcache(
+					handle->db_local, tpkg->name);
+			if(local && _alpm_pkg_compare_versions(tpkg, local) == 0) {
+				/* with the NEEDED flag, packages up to date are not reinstalled */
+				_alpm_log(handle, ALPM_LOG_DEBUG,
+						"not adding dep %s-%s as it is not needed, same version\n",
+						local->name, local->version);
+				j = i;
+				i = i->next;
+				*packages = alpm_list_remove_item(*packages, j);
+				free(j);
+			} else {
+				i = i->next;
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	if(ret != 0) {
 		alpm_list_free(*packages);
 		*packages = packages_copy;
diff --git a/src/pacman/conf.h b/src/pacman/conf.h
index bce42ab5..33a87983 100644
--- a/src/pacman/conf.h
+++ b/src/pacman/conf.h
@@ -123,7 +123,8 @@ enum {
 	OP_ASEXPLICIT,
 	OP_ARCH,
 	OP_PRINTFORMAT,
-	OP_GPGDIR
+	OP_GPGDIR,
+	OP_RECURSIVE
 };
 
 /* clean method */
diff --git a/src/pacman/pacman.c b/src/pacman/pacman.c
index 21ccc966..585c8e08 100644
--- a/src/pacman/pacman.c
+++ b/src/pacman/pacman.c
@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@ static void usage(int op, const char * const myname)
 			addlist(_("  -w, --downloadonly   download packages but do not install/upgrade anything\n"));
 			addlist(_("  -y, --refresh        download fresh package databases from the server\n"));
 			addlist(_("      --needed         don't reinstall up to date packages\n"));
+			addlist(_("      --recursive      reinstall all dependencies of target packages\n"));
 		} else if(op == PM_OP_DATABASE) {
 			printf("%s:  %s {-D --database} <%s> <%s>\n", str_usg, myname, str_opt, str_pkg);
 			printf("%s:\n", str_opt);
@@ -506,6 +507,9 @@ static int parsearg_remove(int opt)
 		case 'c': config->flags |= ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_CASCADE; break;
 		case 'n': config->flags |= ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_NOSAVE; break;
 		case 's':
+		case OP_RECURSIVE:
+			/* 's' is the legacy flag here, but since recursive is used in -S without
+			 * a shortopt, we need to do funky tricks */
 			if(config->flags & ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_RECURSE) {
 				config->flags |= ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_RECURSEALL;
 			} else {
@@ -544,6 +548,7 @@ static int parsearg_sync(int opt)
 		return 0;
 	switch(opt) {
 		case OP_NEEDED: config->flags |= ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_NEEDED; break;
+		case OP_RECURSIVE: config->flags |= ALPM_TRANS_FLAG_RECURSE; break;
 		case 'c': (config->op_s_clean)++; break;
 		case 'g': (config->group)++; break;
 		case 'i': (config->op_s_info)++; break;
@@ -603,7 +608,6 @@ static int parseargs(int argc, char *argv[])
 		{"print",      no_argument,       0, 'p'},
 		{"quiet",      no_argument,       0, 'q'},
 		{"root",       required_argument, 0, 'r'},
-		{"recursive",  no_argument,       0, 's'},
 		{"search",     no_argument,       0, 's'},
 		{"unrequired", no_argument,       0, 't'},
 		{"upgrades",   no_argument,       0, 'u'},
@@ -612,6 +616,7 @@ static int parseargs(int argc, char *argv[])
 		{"verbose",    no_argument,       0, 'v'},
 		{"downloadonly", no_argument,     0, 'w'},
 		{"refresh",    no_argument,       0, 'y'},
+
 		{"noconfirm",  no_argument,       0, OP_NOCONFIRM},
 		{"config",     required_argument, 0, OP_CONFIG},
 		{"ignore",     required_argument, 0, OP_IGNORE},
@@ -628,6 +633,7 @@ static int parseargs(int argc, char *argv[])
 		{"arch",       required_argument, 0, OP_ARCH},
 		{"print-format", required_argument, 0, OP_PRINTFORMAT},
 		{"gpgdir",     required_argument, 0, OP_GPGDIR},
+		{"recursive",  no_argument,       0, OP_RECURSIVE},
 		{0, 0, 0, 0}
 	};