diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
index f7e175373e1..8eedf50c9ca 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ zlib findXMLCatalogs ];
 
-  configureFlags = "--with-python=${python}";
+  configureFlags = "--with-python=${python} --exec_prefix=$dev";
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;