diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/wrapper.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/wrapper.nix
index e3c03c92e58..cdc9a441dc5 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/wrapper.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/wrapper.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 { stdenv, symlinkJoin, lib, makeWrapper
 , vimUtils
+, writeText
 , bundlerEnv, ruby
 , nodejs
 , nodePackages
@@ -110,9 +111,9 @@ let
     # https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/9413
     ++ lib.optionals (configure != {}) [
       "--set" "NVIM_SYSTEM_RPLUGIN_MANIFEST" "${placeholder "out"}/rplugin.vim"
-      "--add-flags" "-u ${vimUtils.vimrcFile configure}"
-    ]
-  ;
+      "--add-flags" "-u ${configFile}"
+    ];
+   configFile = writeText "init.vim" "${vimUtils.vimrcContent configure}";
   in
   symlinkJoin {
       name = "neovim-${stdenv.lib.getVersion neovim}";
@@ -181,7 +182,7 @@ let
     preferLocalBuild = true;
 
     buildInputs = [makeWrapper];
-    passthru = { unwrapped = neovim; };
+    passthru = { unwrapped = neovim; inherit configFile; };
 
     meta = neovim.meta // {
       # To prevent builds on hydra
diff --git a/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim-utils.nix b/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim-utils.nix
index 5e1703c8cc3..ee77599a3ba 100644
--- a/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim-utils.nix
+++ b/pkgs/misc/vim-plugins/vim-utils.nix
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ let
 
   rtpPath = "share/vim-plugins";
 
-  vimrcFile = {
+  vimrcContent = {
     packages ? null,
     vam ? null,
     pathogen ? null,
@@ -338,7 +338,7 @@ let
         filetype indent plugin on | syn on
       '');
 
-  in writeText "vimrc" ''
+  in ''
   " configuration generated by NIX
   set nocompatible
 
@@ -351,11 +351,13 @@ let
 
   ${customRC}
   '';
+  vimrcFile = settings: writeText "vimrc" (vimrcContent settings);
 
 in
 
 rec {
   inherit vimrcFile;
+  inherit vimrcContent;
 
   # shell script with custom name passing [-u vimrc] [-U gvimrc] to vim
   vimWithRC = {