diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/pkgconfig/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/pkgconfig/default.nix
index f323a7d7dbc..49b2cbfe66e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/pkgconfig/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/pkgconfig/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl, automake}:
+{stdenv, fetchurl, automake, vanilla ? false}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation (rec {
   name = "pkg-config-0.23";
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (rec {
     sha256 = "0lrvk17724mc2nzpaa0vwybarrl50r7qdnr4h6jijm50srrf1808";
   };
 
-  patches = [
+  patches = if vanilla then [] else [
     # Process Requires.private properly, see
     # http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4738.
     ./requires-private.patch
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index b98456108b4..12dd024798d 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -3050,6 +3050,7 @@ let
      buildNativeInput after the renaming.
      */
   pkgconfig = forceBuildDrv (callPackage ../development/tools/misc/pkgconfig { });
+  pkgconfigUpstream = pkgconfig.override { vanilla = true; };
 
   premake = callPackage ../development/tools/misc/premake { };