diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
index 12f4759f85d..f139379328a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/ruby/default.nix
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "18a4w0n1n0sij7gkb3196dnqav5zr0c5p26f08k7cw6y0i9dz0sq";
   };
 
+  # Have `configure' avoid `/usr/bin/nroff' in non-chroot builds.
+  NROFF = "${groff}/bin/nroff";
+
   buildInputs = (ops cursesSupport [ ncurses readline ] )
     ++ (op docSupport groff )
     ++ (op zlibSupport zlib)
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libedit/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libedit/default.nix
index fb45563a179..dca4d8efc13 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libedit/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libedit/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, ncurses}:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, ncurses, groff }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "libedit-20100424-3.0";
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "11hxaq58gym7kqccjhxywjxdibffzg545z1aj997y1dn0rckhav0";
   };
 
+  # Have `configure' avoid `/usr/bin/nroff' in non-chroot builds.
+  NROFF = "${groff}/bin/nroff";
+
   postInstall = ''
     sed -i s/-lncurses/-lncursesw/g $out/lib/pkgconfig/libedit.pc
   '';
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/security/mktemp/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/security/mktemp/default.nix
index 001fa4f0953..4017aa4f9f1 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/security/mktemp/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/security/mktemp/default.nix
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl}:
-  
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, groff }:
+
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = "mktemp-1.6";
-  
+
+  # Have `configure' avoid `/usr/bin/nroff' in non-chroot builds.
+  NROFF = "${groff}/bin/nroff";
+
   src = fetchurl {
     url = ftp://ftp.mktemp.org/pub/mktemp/mktemp-1.6.tar.gz;
     sha256 = "1nfj89b0dv1c2fyqi1pg54fyzs3462cbp7jv7lskqsxvqy4mh9x1";