diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
index fad3993ddc1..9f97b49ebb0 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ releaseTools.makeSourceTarball {
     mkdir -p $out/tarballs
     mkdir ../$releaseName
     cp -prd . ../$releaseName
+    echo nixpkgs > ../$releaseName/channel-name
     (cd .. && tar cfa $out/tarballs/$releaseName.tar.bz2 $releaseName) || false
     (cd .. && tar cfa $out/tarballs/$releaseName.tar.lzma $releaseName) || false