diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/universal-ctags/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/universal-ctags/package.py
index 2a7473e6ff8..102c7c1c6aa 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/universal-ctags/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/universal-ctags/package.py
@@ -26,3 +26,6 @@ class UniversalCtags(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('m4',       type='build')
     depends_on('libiconv', type='link')
     depends_on('pkgconfig', type='build')
+
+    def autoreconf(self, spec, prefix):
+        which('bash')('autogen.sh')