diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/release/nix-build.nix b/pkgs/build-support/release/nix-build.nix
index 5c569f97ccf..a32f0e07a0c 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/release/nix-build.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/release/nix-build.nix
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (
       # multiple tarballs, just pick the first one.
       origSrc=$src
       if test -d $src/tarballs; then
-          src=$(ls $src/tarballs/*.tar.bz2 $src/tarballs/*.tar.gz | sort | head -1)
+          src=$(ls $src/tarballs/*.tar.bz2 $src/tarballs/*.tar.gz $src/tarballs/*.tar.xz | sort | head -1)
       fi
 
       # Set GCC flags for coverage analysis, if desired.