diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/fetchgitlab/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/fetchgitlab/default.nix
index 33c19bd1cab9..16ece2715357 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/fetchgitlab/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/fetchgitlab/default.nix
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ lib.makeOverridable (
 # gitlab example
 { owner, repo, rev, protocol ? "https", domain ? "gitlab.com", name ? "source", group ? null
 , fetchSubmodules ? false, leaveDotGit ? false
-, deepClone ? false
+, deepClone ? false, forceFetchGit ? false
 , sparseCheckout ? []
 , ... # For hash agility
 } @ args:
@@ -13,9 +13,9 @@ let
   slug = lib.concatStringsSep "/" ((lib.optional (group != null) group) ++ [ owner repo ]);
   escapedSlug = lib.replaceStrings [ "." "/" ] [ "%2E" "%2F" ] slug;
   escapedRev = lib.replaceStrings [ "+" "%" "/" ] [ "%2B" "%25" "%2F" ] rev;
-  passthruAttrs = removeAttrs args [ "protocol" "domain" "owner" "group" "repo" "rev" "fetchSubmodules" "leaveDotGit" "deepClone" ];
+  passthruAttrs = removeAttrs args [ "protocol" "domain" "owner" "group" "repo" "rev" "fetchSubmodules" "forceFetchGit" "leaveDotGit" "deepClone" ];
 
-  useFetchGit = fetchSubmodules || leaveDotGit || deepClone || (sparseCheckout != []);
+  useFetchGit = fetchSubmodules || leaveDotGit || deepClone || forceFetchGit || (sparseCheckout != []);
   fetcher = if useFetchGit then fetchgit else fetchzip;
 
   gitRepoUrl = "${protocol}://${domain}/${slug}.git";