diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git b/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git
index 2441da156d1a..1d993dcc1094 100755
--- a/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ init_submodules(){
 
         # checkout each submodule
         hash=$(echo "$l" | awk '{print $1}' | tr -d '-')
-        dir=$(echo "$l" | awk '{print $2}')
+        dir=$(echo "$l" | sed -n 's/^ \{0,1\}[^ ]* \(.*\) ([^ ]*)$/\1/p')
         name=$(
             git config -f .gitmodules --get-regexp submodule\..*\.path |
             sed -n "s,^\(.*\)\.path $dir\$,\\1,p")