diff --git a/support/dependencies/dependencies.sh b/support/dependencies/dependencies.sh
index 3822f0ca0e..89ed3c9df9 100755
--- a/support/dependencies/dependencies.sh
+++ b/support/dependencies/dependencies.sh
@@ -183,6 +183,16 @@ for prog in perl tar wget cpio unzip rsync bc cmp find xargs ${DL_TOOLS} ; do
 			echo "  xargs is usually part of the findutils package in your distribution"
 		fi
 	fi
+
+	# we need git >= 2.0.0 for shallow clones / vendoring
+	if test $prog = "git" ; then
+		GIT_VERSION="$(git --version | sed -n 's/^git version \(.*\)/\1/p')"
+		GIT_MAJOR="$(echo "${GIT_VERSION}" | cut -d . -f 1)"
+		if [ "${GIT_MAJOR}" -lt 2 ]; then
+			echo "You have git '${GIT_VERSION}' installed. Git >= 2.0.0 is required"
+			exit 1
+		fi
+	fi
 done
 
 if test "${missing_progs}" = "yes" ; then