diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
index e6055151301c..b34c9ff31f2c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/default.nix
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   buildInputs = optional (hostPlatform.libc == "msvcrt") windows.mingw_w64_pthreads;
 
+  # https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2173
+  patches = [ ./stacksize-detection.patch ];
+
   doCheck = !(with hostPlatform; isCygwin || isFreeBSD) && hostPlatform == buildPlatform;
     # XXX: test failure on Cygwin
     # we are running out of stack on both freeBSDs on Hydra
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/stacksize-detection.patch b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/stacksize-detection.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..4bc97069b1e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/pcre/stacksize-detection.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+diff --git a/pcre_exec.c b/pcre_exec.c
+--- a/pcre_exec.c
++++ b/pcre_exec.c
+@@ -509,6 +509,12 @@
+                  (e.g. stopped by repeated call or recursion limit)
+ */
+ 
++#ifdef __GNUC__
++static int
++match(REGISTER PCRE_PUCHAR eptr, REGISTER const pcre_uchar *ecode,
++  PCRE_PUCHAR mstart, int offset_top, match_data *md, eptrblock *eptrb,
++  unsigned int rdepth) __attribute__((noinline,noclone));
++#endif
+ static int
+ match(REGISTER PCRE_PUCHAR eptr, REGISTER const pcre_uchar *ecode,
+   PCRE_PUCHAR mstart, int offset_top, match_data *md, eptrblock *eptrb,