diff --git a/pkgs/tools/misc/recutils/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/misc/recutils/default.nix
index df53235d0efb..8d648e293c5a 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/misc/recutils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/misc/recutils/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 { fetchurl, stdenv, emacs, curl, check, bc }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "recutils-1.7";
+  name = "recutils-1.8";
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "mirror://gnu/recutils/${name}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "0cdwa4094x3yx7vn98xykvnlp9rngvd58d19vs3vh5hrvggccg93";
+    sha256 = "14xiln4immfsw8isnvwvq0h23f6z0wilpgsc4qzabnrzb5lsx3nz";
   };
 
   hardeningDisable = [ "format" ];
@@ -15,11 +15,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   checkInputs = [ check bc ];
   doCheck = true;
 
-  # one file fails to compile with emacs 26
-  postInstall = ''
-    ${emacs}/bin/emacs -Q -batch -f batch-byte-compile $out/share/emacs/site-lisp/*.el || true
-  '';
-
   meta = {
     description = "Tools and libraries to access human-editable, text-based databases";