diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix
index 9ce486323a7..538c136a042 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 # Extra Options
 , unicode ? true
+, abiVersion ? null
 }:
 
 let
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     (mkEnable unicode     "widec"       null)
     (mkEnable true        "ext-colors"  null)
     (mkEnable true        "ext-mouse"   null)
-  ];
+  ] ++ stdenv.lib.optional (abiVersion != null) (mkWith true "abi-version" abiVersion);
 
   # PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR is where the *.pc files will be installed. If this
   # directory doesn't exist, the configure script will disable installation of
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index e3dd92a1e08..c8c4c716a25 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -7241,6 +7241,10 @@ let
 
   ncurses = callPackage ../development/libraries/ncurses { };
 
+  ncurses5 = callPackage ../development/libraries/ncurses {
+    abiVersion = "5";
+  };
+
   neon = callPackage ../development/libraries/neon {
     compressionSupport = true;
     sslSupport = true;