diff --git a/dev-shell b/dev-shell
deleted file mode 100755
index 5a090ded6..000000000
--- a/dev-shell
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-if [ -e tests/test-tmp ]; then
-    chmod -R u+w tests/test-tmp
-    rm -rf tests/test-tmp
-fi
-
-s=$(type -p nix-shell)
-exec $s release.nix -A tarball --command "
-    unset http_proxy
-    export NIX_REMOTE=$NIX_REMOTE
-    export NIX_PATH='$NIX_PATH'
-    export NIX_BUILD_SHELL=$(type -p bash)
-    export c=\$configureFlags
-    exec $s release.nix -A build.$(if [ $(uname -s) = Darwin ]; then echo x86_64-darwin; elif [[ $(uname -m) =~ ^i[3456]86$ ]]; then echo i686-linux; else echo x86_64-linux; fi) --exclude tarball --command '
-        configureFlags+=\" \$c --prefix=$(pwd)/inst --sysconfdir=$(pwd)/inst/etc\"
-        return
-    '" \
-    "$@"
diff --git a/doc/manual/hacking.xml b/doc/manual/hacking.xml
index 11af0998f..183aed7ad 100644
--- a/doc/manual/hacking.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/hacking.xml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ $ nix-build release.nix -A build.x86_64-linux
 environment variables are set up so that those dependencies can be
 found:
 <screen>
-$ ./dev-shell
+$ nix-shell
 </screen>
 To build Nix itself in this shell:
 <screen>
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ To build Nix itself in this shell:
 [nix-shell]$ configurePhase
 [nix-shell]$ make
 </screen>
-To test it:
+To install it in <literal>$(pwd)/nix</literal> and test it:
 <screen>
 [nix-shell]$ make install
 [nix-shell]$ make installcheck
diff --git a/shell.nix b/shell.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..272627692
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shell.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+with import <nixpkgs> {};
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "nix";
+
+  buildInputs =
+    [ curl bison flex perl libxml2 libxslt bzip2 xz
+      pkgconfig sqlite libsodium boehmgc
+      docbook5 docbook5_xsl
+      autoconf-archive
+      (aws-sdk-cpp.override {
+        apis = ["s3"];
+        customMemoryManagement = false;
+      })
+      autoreconfHook
+    ];
+
+  configureFlags =
+    [ "--disable-init-state"
+      "--enable-gc"
+      "--with-dbi=${perlPackages.DBI}/${perl.libPrefix}"
+      "--with-dbd-sqlite=${perlPackages.DBDSQLite}/${perl.libPrefix}"
+    ];
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  installFlags = "sysconfdir=$(out)/etc";
+
+  shellHook =
+    ''
+      configureFlags+=" --prefix=$(pwd)/inst"
+    '';
+}