diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/spec.py b/lib/spack/spack/spec.py
index f95d7950a09..72117e1cb3f 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/spec.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/spec.py
@@ -1834,6 +1834,7 @@ def do_parse(self):
         except spack.parse.ParseError, e:
             raise SpecParseError(e)
 
+
         return specs
 
 
@@ -1900,15 +1901,16 @@ def spec(self, name, check_valid_token = False):
             elif self.accept(ON):
                 self.expect(ID)
                 self.check_identifier()
-                input = self.token.value
+                option = self.token.value
                 if self.accept(EQ):
                     if self.accept(QT):
                         self.token.value = self.token.value[1:-1]
                     else:
                         self.expect(ID)
-                    spec._add_flag(input,self.token.value)
+                    print "about to add", option, "=", self.token.value
+                    spec._add_flag(option,self.token.value)
                 else:
-                    spec._add_variant(self.variant(input),True)
+                    spec._add_variant(self.variant(option),True)
                 check_valid_token = False
 
             elif self.accept(OFF):