diff --git a/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/source/image/ImageFileFormatSuite.scala b/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/source/image/ImageFileFormatSuite.scala
index 38e25131df867..38bb246d02184 100644
--- a/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/source/image/ImageFileFormatSuite.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ml/source/image/ImageFileFormatSuite.scala
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ class ImageFileFormatSuite extends SparkFunSuite with MLlibTestSparkContext {
 
   // Single column of images named "image"
   private lazy val imagePath = "../data/mllib/images/partitioned"
+  private lazy val recursiveImagePath = "../data/mllib/images"
 
   test("image datasource count test") {
     val df1 = spark.read.format("image").load(imagePath)
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala
index 3c932555179fd..3adec2f790730 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala
@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@ abstract class PartitioningAwareFileIndex(
     pathGlobFilter.forall(_.accept(file.getPath))
   }
 
+  protected lazy val recursiveFileLookup = {
+    parameters.getOrElse("recursiveFileLookup", "false").toBoolean
+  }
+
   override def listFiles(
       partitionFilters: Seq[Expression], dataFilters: Seq[Expression]): Seq[PartitionDirectory] = {
     def isNonEmptyFile(f: FileStatus): Boolean = {
@@ -70,6 +74,10 @@ abstract class PartitioningAwareFileIndex(
     val selectedPartitions = if (partitionSpec().partitionColumns.isEmpty) {
       PartitionDirectory(InternalRow.empty, allFiles().filter(isNonEmptyFile)) :: Nil
     } else {
+      if (recursiveFileLookup) {
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+          "Datasource with partition do not allow recursive file loading.")
+      }
       prunePartitions(partitionFilters, partitionSpec()).map {
         case PartitionPath(values, path) =>
           val files: Seq[FileStatus] = leafDirToChildrenFiles.get(path) match {
@@ -95,7 +103,7 @@ abstract class PartitioningAwareFileIndex(
   override def sizeInBytes: Long = allFiles().map(_.getLen).sum
 
   def allFiles(): Seq[FileStatus] = {
-    val files = if (partitionSpec().partitionColumns.isEmpty) {
+    val files = if (partitionSpec().partitionColumns.isEmpty && !recursiveFileLookup) {
       // For each of the root input paths, get the list of files inside them
       rootPaths.flatMap { path =>
         // Make the path qualified (consistent with listLeafFiles and bulkListLeafFiles).
@@ -128,23 +136,27 @@ abstract class PartitioningAwareFileIndex(
   }
 
   protected def inferPartitioning(): PartitionSpec = {
-    // We use leaf dirs containing data files to discover the schema.
-    val leafDirs = leafDirToChildrenFiles.filter { case (_, files) =>
-      files.exists(f => isDataPath(f.getPath))
-    }.keys.toSeq
-
-    val caseInsensitiveOptions = CaseInsensitiveMap(parameters)
-    val timeZoneId = caseInsensitiveOptions.get(DateTimeUtils.TIMEZONE_OPTION)
-      .getOrElse(sparkSession.sessionState.conf.sessionLocalTimeZone)
-
-    PartitioningUtils.parsePartitions(
-      leafDirs,
-      typeInference = sparkSession.sessionState.conf.partitionColumnTypeInferenceEnabled,
-      basePaths = basePaths,
-      userSpecifiedSchema = userSpecifiedSchema,
-      caseSensitive = sparkSession.sqlContext.conf.caseSensitiveAnalysis,
-      validatePartitionColumns = sparkSession.sqlContext.conf.validatePartitionColumns,
-      timeZoneId = timeZoneId)
+    if (recursiveFileLookup) {
+      PartitionSpec.emptySpec
+    } else {
+      // We use leaf dirs containing data files to discover the schema.
+      val leafDirs = leafDirToChildrenFiles.filter { case (_, files) =>
+        files.exists(f => isDataPath(f.getPath))
+      }.keys.toSeq
+
+      val caseInsensitiveOptions = CaseInsensitiveMap(parameters)
+      val timeZoneId = caseInsensitiveOptions.get(DateTimeUtils.TIMEZONE_OPTION)
+        .getOrElse(sparkSession.sessionState.conf.sessionLocalTimeZone)
+
+      PartitioningUtils.parsePartitions(
+        leafDirs,
+        typeInference = sparkSession.sessionState.conf.partitionColumnTypeInferenceEnabled,
+        basePaths = basePaths,
+        userSpecifiedSchema = userSpecifiedSchema,
+        caseSensitive = sparkSession.sqlContext.conf.caseSensitiveAnalysis,
+        validatePartitionColumns = sparkSession.sqlContext.conf.validatePartitionColumns,
+        timeZoneId = timeZoneId)
+    }
   }
 
   private def prunePartitions(
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/FileBasedDataSourceSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/FileBasedDataSourceSuite.scala
index ea4794e7c8090..b2d6f017ee04e 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/FileBasedDataSourceSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/FileBasedDataSourceSuite.scala
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.spark.sql
 
 import java.io.{File, FilenameFilter, FileNotFoundException}
+import java.nio.file.{Files, StandardOpenOption}
 import java.util.Locale
 
 import scala.collection.mutable
@@ -572,6 +573,75 @@ class FileBasedDataSourceSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext with Befo
     }
   }
 
+  test("Option recursiveFileLookup: recursive loading correctly") {
+
+    val expectedFileList = mutable.ListBuffer[String]()
+
+    def createFile(dir: File, fileName: String, format: String): Unit = {
+      val path = new File(dir, s"${fileName}.${format}")
+      Files.write(
+        path.toPath,
+        s"content of ${path.toString}".getBytes,
+        StandardOpenOption.CREATE, StandardOpenOption.WRITE
+      )
+      val fsPath = new Path(path.getAbsoluteFile.toURI).toString
+      expectedFileList.append(fsPath)
+    }
+
+    def createDir(path: File, dirName: String, level: Int): Unit = {
+      val dir = new File(path, s"dir${dirName}-${level}")
+      dir.mkdir()
+      createFile(dir, s"file${level}", "bin")
+      createFile(dir, s"file${level}", "text")
+
+      if (level < 4) {
+        // create sub-dir
+        createDir(dir, "sub0", level + 1)
+        createDir(dir, "sub1", level + 1)
+      }
+    }
+
+    withTempPath { path =>
+      path.mkdir()
+      createDir(path, "root", 0)
+
+      val dataPath = new File(path, "dirroot-0").getAbsolutePath
+      val fileList = spark.read.format("binaryFile")
+        .option("recursiveFileLookup", true)
+        .load(dataPath)
+        .select("path").collect().map(_.getString(0))
+
+      assert(fileList.toSet === expectedFileList.toSet)
+
+      val fileList2 = spark.read.format("binaryFile")
+        .option("recursiveFileLookup", true)
+        .option("pathGlobFilter", "*.bin")
+        .load(dataPath)
+        .select("path").collect().map(_.getString(0))
+
+      assert(fileList2.toSet === expectedFileList.filter(_.endsWith(".bin")).toSet)
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("Option recursiveFileLookup: disable partition inferring") {
+    val dataPath = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader
+      .getResource("test-data/text-partitioned").toString
+
+    val df = spark.read.format("binaryFile")
+      .option("recursiveFileLookup", true)
+      .load(dataPath)
+
+    assert(!df.columns.contains("year"), "Expect partition inferring disabled")
+    val fileList = df.select("path").collect().map(_.getString(0))
+
+    val expectedFileList = Array(
+      dataPath + "/year=2014/data.txt",
+      dataPath + "/year=2015/data.txt"
+    ).map(path => new Path(path).toString)
+
+    assert(fileList.toSet === expectedFileList.toSet)
+  }
+
   test("Return correct results when data columns overlap with partition columns") {
     Seq("parquet", "orc", "json").foreach { format =>
       withTempPath { path =>