diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses-diet/builder.sh b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses-diet/builder.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..999f3a84e56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses-diet/builder.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+source $stdenv/setup
+
+configureFlags="--includedir=$out/include --without-cxx-binding"
+
+genericBuild
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses-diet/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses-diet/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..64dc016d478
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses-diet/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "ncurses-5.5";
+  builder = ./builder.sh;
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-5.5.tar.gz;
+    md5 = "e73c1ac10b4bfc46db43b2ddfd6244ef";
+  };
+}