diff --git a/builtin/grep.c b/builtin/grep.c
index 50e712a184..f5f5f6dbe1 100644
--- a/builtin/grep.c
+++ b/builtin/grep.c
@@ -924,9 +924,8 @@ int cmd_grep(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 			 N_("process binary files with textconv filters")),
 		OPT_SET_INT('r', "recursive", &opt.max_depth,
 			    N_("search in subdirectories (default)"), -1),
-		{ OPTION_INTEGER, 0, "max-depth", &opt.max_depth, N_("depth"),
-			N_("descend at most <depth> levels"), PARSE_OPT_NONEG,
-			NULL, 1 },
+		OPT_INTEGER_F(0, "max-depth", &opt.max_depth,
+			N_("descend at most <n> levels"), PARSE_OPT_NONEG),
 		OPT_GROUP(""),
 		OPT_SET_INT('E', "extended-regexp", &opt.pattern_type_option,
 			    N_("use extended POSIX regular expressions"),