diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/gnum4/1.4.11.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/gnum4/1.4.11.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..bafa7f11a447
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/gnum4/1.4.11.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "m4-1.4.11";
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "mirror://gnu/m4/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "1bcakymxddxykg5vbll3d9xq17m5sa3r6cprf1k27x5k4mjnhz0b";
+  };
+
+  patches = [ ./SIGPIPE.patch ];
+
+  # XXX: Work around Gnulib bug.  See:
+  # http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.m4.bugs/2478 .
+  configureFlags="gl_cv_func_strtod_works=no";
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
+  meta = {
+    homepage = http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/;
+    description = "GNU M4, a macro processor";
+
+    longDescription = ''
+      GNU M4 is an implementation of the traditional Unix macro
+      processor.  It is mostly SVR4 compatible although it has some
+      extensions (for example, handling more than 9 positional
+      parameters to macros).  GNU M4 also has built-in functions for
+      including files, running shell commands, doing arithmetic, etc.
+
+      GNU M4 is a macro processor in the sense that it copies its
+      input to the output expanding macros as it goes.  Macros are
+      either builtin or user-defined and can take any number of
+      arguments.  Besides just doing macro expansion, m4 has builtin
+      functions for including named files, running UNIX commands,
+      doing integer arithmetic, manipulating text in various ways,
+      recursion etc...  m4 can be used either as a front-end to a
+      compiler or as a macro processor in its own right.
+    '';
+
+    license = "GPLv3+";
+  };
+
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/gnum4/SIGPIPE.patch b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/gnum4/SIGPIPE.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cd7d8910bc32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/gnum4/SIGPIPE.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+Make the `126.diversions' test work when run in the Nix daemon.
+See http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.m4.bugs/2552/focus=2555 for details.
+
+index 02e0f6d..3cd6951 100644
+--- a/doc/m4.texinfo
++++ b/doc/m4.texinfo
+@@ -4714,7 +4714,7 @@ ifdef(`__unix__', ,
+ ')m4exit(`77')')dnl
+ changequote(`[', `]')dnl
+ syscmd([echo 'divert(1)hi
+-format(%1000000d, 1)' | m4 | sed 1q])dnl
++format(%1000000d, 1)' | ]__program__[ | sed -n 1p])dnl
+ @result{}hi
+ sysval
+ @result{}0
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index b56e9df03775..6337c7c988ab 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -2084,6 +2084,10 @@ let pkgs = rec {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv;
   };
 
+  gnum4_1411 = import ../development/tools/misc/gnum4/1.4.11.nix {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv;
+  };
+
   gnumake = useFromStdenv "gnumake"
     (import ../development/tools/build-managers/gnumake {
       inherit fetchurl stdenv;