diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
index b72673df164..47068f071ad 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
@@ -1,12 +1,20 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl, zlib}:
+{stdenv, fetchurl, zlib, python ? null, pythonSupport ? true}:
 
 assert zlib != null;
+assert pythonSupport -> python != null;
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = "libxml2-2.6.8";
+  builder = ./builder.sh;
+
   src = fetchurl {
     url = ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/libxml2/2.6/libxml2-2.6.8.tar.bz2;
     md5 = "f8a0dc1983f67db388baa0f7c65d2b70";
   };
+
+  python = if pythonSupport then python else null;
+  inherit pythonSupport;
+
+  buildInputs =  if pythonSupport then [python] else [];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [zlib];
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix b/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
index fb6b1120fd3..6dda81bf028 100644
--- a/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/system/all-packages-generic.nix
@@ -422,7 +422,7 @@ rec {
   };
 
   libxml2 = (import ../development/libraries/libxml2) {
-    inherit fetchurl stdenv zlib;
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv zlib python;
   };
 
   libxslt = (import ../development/libraries/libxslt) {