diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 61dd0d633ba893d2c00eba72fd340a2a628ac754..c4edcbddc1335d23d70833263bb0bcd0244bb80e 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -7,11 +7,11 @@ variables:
 before_script:
 - echo "Running make concurrently with $(nproc) cores, where possibly"
 # make sure we can update submodules and apply the patches
-- git submodule foreach --recursive git reset --hard HEAD
-- git submodule foreach --recursive git clean -fdx
+- git submodule foreach git reset --hard HEAD
+- git submodule foreach git clean -fdx
 # work around https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ci-multi-runner/issues/2148
-- git submodule sync --recursive
-- git submodule update --init --recursive
+- git submodule sync
+- git submodule update --init
 # end workaround
 - patches/apply_patches.sh
 # detect number of processors, but make sure never to run with -j"", as the