diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/emacs/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/emacs/package.py
index 1a7c8143a9f1a6..21b6b1b17b4f0a 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/emacs/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/emacs/package.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ class Emacs(AutotoolsPackage):
         values=('gtk', 'athena'),
         description="Select an X toolkit (gtk, athena)"
     )
+    variant('tls', default=False, description="Build Emacs with gnutls")
 
     depends_on('pkgconfig', type='build')
 
@@ -55,6 +56,9 @@ class Emacs(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('libx11', when='+X')
     depends_on('libxaw', when='+X toolkit=athena')
     depends_on('gtkplus+X', when='+X toolkit=gtk')
+    depends_on('gnutls', when='+tls')
+    depends_on('libxpm ^gettext+libunistring', when='+tls')
+    depends_on('ncurses+termlib', when='+tls')
 
     def configure_args(self):
         spec = self.spec
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/ncurses/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/ncurses/package.py
index 9787568bb623b4..d237dc3306c87a 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/ncurses/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/ncurses/package.py
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@ class Ncurses(AutotoolsPackage):
 
     variant('symlinks', default=False,
             description='Enables symlinks. Needed on AFS filesystem.')
+    variant('termlib', default=False,
+            description='Enables termlib needs for gnutls in emacs.')
 
     depends_on('pkgconfig', type='build')
 
@@ -71,6 +73,12 @@ def configure(self, spec, prefix):
         if '+symlinks' in self.spec:
             opts.append('--enable-symlinks')
 
+        if '+termlib' in self.spec:
+            opts.extend(('--with-termlib',
+                         '--enable-termcap',
+                         '--enable-getcap',
+                         '--enable-tcap-names'))
+
         prefix = '--prefix={0}'.format(prefix)
 
         configure = Executable('../configure')