diff --git a/bin/ldapuserdir-ctl b/bin/ldapuserdir-ctl
index bb8d2e8..8fedc2a 100755
--- a/bin/ldapuserdir-ctl
+++ b/bin/ldapuserdir-ctl
@@ -227,11 +227,11 @@ parser.add_option('-V',
                   default = False
 )
 
-parser.add_option('-r',
-                  action = 'store_true',
+parser.add_option('-R',
+                  action = 'store_false',
                   dest = 'recursive',
-                  help = 'Recursively resolve groups',
-                  default = False
+                  help = "Don't recursively resolve groups",
+                  default = True
 )
 
 (options, args) = parser.parse_args()
@@ -367,7 +367,8 @@ try:
             sys.stdout.write("\n".join(ldapdir.get_groups_for_user(user_to_group,
                                                                    gfilter=sfilter,
                                                                    mssfu=flag_mssfu,
-                                                                   returndn=flag_showdn))
+                                                                   returndn=flag_showdn,
+                                                                   recursive=options.recursive))
                              + '\n')
             #sys.stdout.write("\n".join(ldapdir.get_groups_for_user(user_to_group))
             #                 + "\n")
diff --git a/ldapuserdir/ldapuserdir.py b/ldapuserdir/ldapuserdir.py
index 3130c47..ee0e996 100755
--- a/ldapuserdir/ldapuserdir.py
+++ b/ldapuserdir/ldapuserdir.py
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ class LdapUserDir(object):
         return grplist
 
     def get_groups_for_user(self, user, gfilter=None, returndn=False,
-                            mssfu=False):
+                            mssfu=False, recursive=True):
         """Get groups for a particular user from LDAP.
 
         The function will try to determine whether it receives a DN or
@@ -512,7 +512,7 @@ class LdapUserDir(object):
         else:
             dnname = user
 
-        reslist = self.get_memberof(dnname, recursive=True, mssfu=mssfu)
+        reslist = self.get_memberof(dnname, recursive=recursive, mssfu=mssfu)
 
         if not returndn:
             try: