diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/builder.sh b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/builder.sh
index 1b4e58174c8..3864be6eeb5 100755
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/builder.sh
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/builder.sh
@@ -9,3 +9,5 @@ cd libxml2-* || exit 1
 make || exit 1
 make install || exit 1
 strip -S $out/lib/*.a || exit 1
+
+echo "$zlib" > $out/propagated-build-inputs || exit 1