diff --git a/main.js b/main.js
index 70032bf5..48b7f0ca 100644
--- a/main.js
+++ b/main.js
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
 		}
 		
 		if (opts._.length > 0) {
-			sourceFiles = jsdoc.src.getFilePaths(opts._);
+			sourceFiles = jsdoc.src.getFilePaths(opts._, (opts.recurse? 10 : undefined));
 	
 			jsdoc.parser.parseFiles(sourceFiles, opts.encoding);
 			
diff --git a/modules/jsdoc/opts.js b/modules/jsdoc/opts.js
index bc0cfc68..eb636404 100644
--- a/modules/jsdoc/opts.js
+++ b/modules/jsdoc/opts.js
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@
 	argsParser.addOption('d', 'destination', true,  'The path to the output folder. Use "stdout.json" or "stdout.xml" to dump data to the console. Default: ./jsdocs');
 	argsParser.addOption('h', 'help',        false, 'Print help message and quit.');
 	argsParser.addOption('V', 'validate',    false, 'Validate the results produced by parsing the source code.');
-	
+	argsParser.addOption('r', 'recurse',     false, 'Recurse into subdirectories to find source files.');
+
 	/**
 		Set the options for this app.
 		@method set
diff --git a/test/tests/01_jsdoc_opts.js b/test/tests/01_jsdoc_opts.js
index 7fac0add..678d9a06 100644
--- a/test/tests/01_jsdoc_opts.js
+++ b/test/tests/01_jsdoc_opts.js
@@ -57,6 +57,14 @@
       		});
 		});
 		
+		//// setting the recurse option
+		describe('The return value of jsdoc.opts#recurse when called with `-r`', function() {
+			it('should have a property `recurse` set to true', function() {
+				var returnedValue = jsdoc.opts.set(['-r', true]);
+				expect(returnedValue.recurse).to(be, true);
+      		});
+		});
+		
 		describe('The return value of jsdoc.opts#set when called with `["--destination", "flib/flub.json"]`', function() {
 			it('should have a property `destination` set to "flib/flub.json"', function() {
 				var returnedValue = jsdoc.opts.set(['--destination', 'flib/flub.json']);