diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/nuke-references/builder.sh b/pkgs/build-support/nuke-references/builder.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..867262c516b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/nuke-references/builder.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+source $stdenv/setup
+
+ensureDir $out/bin
+cat > $out/bin/nuke-refs <<EOF
+#! $SHELL -e
+for i in \$*; do
+    cat \$i | sed "s|/nix/store/[a-z0-9]*-|/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-|g" > \$i.tmp
+    if test -x \$i; then chmod +x \$i.tmp; fi
+    mv \$i.tmp \$i
+done
+EOF
+chmod +x $out/bin/nuke-refs
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/nuke-references/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/nuke-references/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d672184553f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/nuke-references/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# The program `nuke-refs' created by this derivation replaces all
+# references to the Nix store in the specified files by a non-existant
+# path (/nix/store/eeee...).  This is useful for getting rid of
+# dependencies that you know are not actually needed at runtime.
+
+{stdenv}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "nuke-references";
+  builder = ./builder.sh;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 51a07641b11b..d8e5023207d0 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -192,6 +192,10 @@ rec {
     inherit stdenv;
   };
 
+  nukeReferences = import ../build-support/nuke-references/default.nix {
+    inherit stdenv;
+  };
+
 
   ### TOOLS