2 files changed, 5 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 4a78617c7..d26722ddf 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
   the relative link on the dereferenced path of an existing link.
   [This bug was introduced when --relative was added in coreutils-8.16.]
 
+  ls --recursive will no longer exit with "serious" exit code (2), if there
+  is an error reading a directory not specified on the command line.
+  [Bug introduced in coreutils-5.3.0]
+
   mkdir, mkfifo, and mknod now work better when creating a file in a directory
   with a default ACL whose umask disagrees with the process's umask, on a
   system such as GNU/Linux where directory ACL umasks override process umasks.
diff --git a/src/ls.c b/src/ls.c
index 1652bcf94..512d65e2d 100644
--- a/src/ls.c
+++ b/src/ls.c
@@ -2647,7 +2647,7 @@ print_dir (char const *name, char const *realname, bool command_line_arg)
      contents listed rather than being mentioned here as files.  */
 
   if (recursive)
-    extract_dirs_from_files (name, command_line_arg);
+    extract_dirs_from_files (name, false);
 
   if (format == long_format || print_block_size)
     {