diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py
index e795d82bf5eb1c4c09f3ed0f217fb31f7942b21d..c665f5091433f934e5f45dfdca2b40292e0ad5f1 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class Gettext(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('tar',      when='+tar')
     # depends_on('gzip',     when='+gzip')
     depends_on('bzip2',    when='+bzip2')
-    depends_on('xz',       when='+xz')
+    depends_on('xz',       when='+xz', type=('build', 'link', 'run'))
 
     # Optional dependencies
     # depends_on('glib')  # circular dependency?