diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/7.8.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/7.8.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a9afb0c7cef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/7.8.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl, unicodeSupport ? false, cplusplusSupport ? true}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "pcre-7.8";
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-7.8.tar.bz2;
+    sha256 = "1zsqk352mx2zklf9bgpg9d88ckfdssbbbiyslhrycfckw8m3qpvr";
+  };
+  configureFlags =
+    (if unicodeSupport then
+      "--enable-unicode-properties --enable-shared --disable-static"
+    else "") +
+    (if !cplusplusSupport then "--disable-cpp" else "");
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
index a9afb0c7cef..6baea4b6ff5 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 {stdenv, fetchurl, unicodeSupport ? false, cplusplusSupport ? true}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "pcre-7.8";
+  name = "pcre-7.4";
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-7.8.tar.bz2;
-    sha256 = "1zsqk352mx2zklf9bgpg9d88ckfdssbbbiyslhrycfckw8m3qpvr";
+    url = mirror://sourceforge/pcre/pcre-7.4.tar.bz2;
+    sha256 = "1rdks2h5f3p2d71c4jnxaic1c9gmgsfky80djnafcdbdrhzkiyx5";
   };
   configureFlags =
     (if unicodeSupport then