diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
index 70330f4304f1..9856586a1832 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ releaseTools.sourceTarball rec {
     # Check that all-packages.nix evaluates on a number of platforms.
     for platform in i686-linux x86_64-linux x86_64-darwin i686-freebsd x86_64-freebsd; do
         header "checking pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix on $platform"
-        nix-env -f pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix \
+        NIXPKGS_ALLOW_BROKEN=1 nix-env -f pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix \
             --show-trace --argstr system "$platform" \
             -qa \* --drv-path --system-filter \* --system --meta --xml > /dev/null
         stopNest