diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
index 65eb51af9b0..7802f89807d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl, unicodeSupport ? false, cplusplusSupport ? true}:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, unicodeSupport ? true, cplusplusSupport ? true }:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "pcre-8.10";
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "pcre-8.21";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = mirror://sourceforge/pcre/pcre-8.10.tar.bz2;
-    sha256 = "7ac4e016f6bad8c7d990e6de9bce58c04ff5dd8838be0c5ada0afad1d6a07480";
+    url = "ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "1qwrqldbwszbmr4cw4f0xmcl889cmmjbf58l9vxn89zw26fm1f54";
   };
 
   # The compiler on Darwin crashes with an internal error while building the
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 2bf7cb37d8e..fc7875aeb4b 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -3215,8 +3215,7 @@ let
 
   cln = callPackage ../development/libraries/cln { };
 
-  clppcre = builderDefsPackage (import ../development/libraries/cl-ppcre) {
-  };
+  clppcre = builderDefsPackage (import ../development/libraries/cl-ppcre) { };
 
   clucene_core = callPackage ../development/libraries/clucene-core { };
 
@@ -4400,7 +4399,7 @@ let
   };
 
   pcre = callPackage ../development/libraries/pcre {
-    unicodeSupport = getConfig ["pcre" "unicode"] false;
+    unicodeSupport = getConfig ["pcre" "unicode"] true;
     cplusplusSupport = !stdenv ? isDietLibC;
   };