diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/alex/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/alex/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..00d414d56bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/alex/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl, ghc, perl}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "alex-2.1.0";
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = http://www.haskell.org/alex/dist/2.1.0/alex-2.1.0.tar.gz;
+    sha1 = "37599b7be5249d639b3a5a3fdc61907dc4dad660";
+  };
+  buildInputs = [ghc perl];
+
+  configurePhase = "
+    ghc --make Setup.lhs
+    ./Setup configure --prefix=\"\${out}\"
+  ";
+
+  buildPhase = "
+    ./Setup build
+  ";
+
+  installPhase = "
+    ./Setup install
+  ";
+}