diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
index 9481f2bbdc3..1b72c5b38cc 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libxml2/default.nix
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
+  doCheck = true;
+
   crossAttrs = lib.optionalAttrs (stdenv.cross.libc == "msvcrt") {
     # creating the DLL is broken ATM
     dontDisableStatic = true;