diff --git a/scripts/osmo-build-dep.sh b/scripts/osmo-build-dep.sh
index 8104ba75..6e9ef861 100755
--- a/scripts/osmo-build-dep.sh
+++ b/scripts/osmo-build-dep.sh
@@ -40,12 +40,8 @@ set -x
 
 mkdir -p "$deps"
 cd "$deps"
-osmo-deps.sh "$project"
+osmo-deps.sh "$project" "$branch"
 cd "$project"
-if [ -n "$branch" ]; then
-	git checkout "$branch"
-fi
-git rev-parse HEAD # log current HEAD
 
 autoreconf --install --force
 ./configure --prefix="$inst" $cfg
diff --git a/scripts/osmo-deps.sh b/scripts/osmo-deps.sh
index c256a6a7..92cf0416 100755
--- a/scripts/osmo-deps.sh
+++ b/scripts/osmo-deps.sh
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 set -ex
+project="$1"
+branch="${2:-origin/master}"
 
-if ! test -d $1;
+if ! test -d "$project";
 then
-  git clone git://git.osmocom.org/$1 $1
+  git clone "git://git.osmocom.org/$project" "$project"
 fi
 
-cd $1
+cd "$project"
 git fetch origin
 
 # Cleanup should already have happened during a global osmo-clean-workspace.sh,
@@ -14,5 +16,5 @@ git fetch origin
 # the dep subdir separately:
 osmo-clean-workspace.sh
 
-git reset --hard origin/master
+git reset --hard "$branch"
 git rev-parse HEAD