diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23-snapshot/builder.sh b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23/builder.sh
similarity index 100%
rename from pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23-snapshot/builder.sh
rename to pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23/builder.sh
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1d806f76b8d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+{ xawSupport ? true
+, xpmSupport ? true
+, dbusSupport ? true
+, xaw3dSupport ? false
+, gtkGUI ? false
+, xftSupport ? false
+, stdenv, fetchurl, ncurses, x11, libXaw ? null, libXpm ? null, Xaw3d ? null
+, pkgconfig ? null, gtk ? null, libXft ? null, dbus ? null
+, libpng, libjpeg, libungif, libtiff, texinfo
+}:
+
+assert xawSupport -> libXaw != null;
+assert xpmSupport -> libXpm != null;
+assert dbusSupport -> dbus != null;
+assert xaw3dSupport -> Xaw3d != null;
+assert gtkGUI -> pkgconfig != null && gtk != null;
+assert xftSupport -> libXft != null && libpng != null; # libpng = probably a bug
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "emacs-23.1";
+
+  builder = ./builder.sh;
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "mirror://gnu/emacs/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "076b4ixdp29l4c02bwic26d14gxlj0lcqyam33wyj3ksgi2z8d9b";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [
+    ncurses x11 texinfo
+    (if xawSupport then libXaw else null)
+    (if xpmSupport then libXpm else null)
+    (if dbusSupport then dbus else null)
+    (if xaw3dSupport then Xaw3d else null)
+    libpng libjpeg libungif libtiff # maybe not strictly required?
+  ]
+  ++ (if gtkGUI then [pkgconfig gtk] else [])
+  ++ (if xftSupport then [libXft] else []);
+
+  configureFlags = "
+    ${if gtkGUI then "--with-x-toolkit=gtk --enable-font-backend --with-xft" else ""}
+  ";
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "GNU Emacs 23.x, the extensible, customizable text editor";
+
+    longDescription = ''
+      GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more.  At its
+      core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp
+      programming language with extensions to support text editing.
+
+      The features of GNU Emacs include: content-sensitive editing modes,
+      including syntax coloring, for a wide variety of file types including
+      plain text, source code, and HTML; complete built-in documentation,
+      including a tutorial for new users; full Unicode support for nearly all
+      human languages and their scripts; highly customizable, using Emacs
+      Lisp code or a graphical interface; a large number of extensions that
+      add other functionality, including a project planner, mail and news
+      reader, debugger interface, calendar, and more.  Many of these
+      extensions are distributed with GNU Emacs; others are available
+      separately.
+    '';
+
+    homepage = http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/;
+    license = "GPLv3+";
+
+    maintainers = [ stdenv.lib.maintainers.ludo ];
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-snapshot/builder.sh b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-snapshot/builder.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..677311c4fd30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-snapshot/builder.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+source $stdenv/setup
+
+preConfigure() {
+    libc=$(cat ${NIX_GCC}/nix-support/orig-libc)
+    echo "libc: $libc"
+
+    for i in src/s/*.h src/m/*.h; do
+        substituteInPlace $i \
+            --replace /usr/lib/crt1.o $libc/lib/crt1.o \
+            --replace /usr/lib/crti.o $libc/lib/crti.o \
+            --replace /usr/lib/crtn.o $libc/lib/crtn.o
+    done
+    
+    for i in Makefile.in ./src/Makefile.in ./lib-src/Makefile.in ./leim/Makefile.in; do
+        substituteInPlace $i --replace /bin/pwd pwd
+    done
+}
+
+preBuild="make bootstrap"
+
+genericBuild
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23-snapshot/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-snapshot/default.nix
similarity index 100%
rename from pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-23-snapshot/default.nix
rename to pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-snapshot/default.nix
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 983210f73e4a..d92f4c19395f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -6162,7 +6162,19 @@ let
     gtkGUI = getPkgConfig "emacs" "gtkSupport" true;
   };
 
-  emacs23 = lowPrio (import ../applications/editors/emacs-23-snapshot {
+  emacs23 = import ../applications/editors/emacs-23 {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv ncurses pkgconfig x11 Xaw3d
+      libpng libjpeg libungif libtiff texinfo dbus;
+    inherit (xlibs) libXaw libXpm libXft;
+    inherit (gtkLibs) gtk;
+    xawSupport = getPkgConfig "emacs" "xawSupport" false;
+    xaw3dSupport = getPkgConfig "emacs" "xaw3dSupport" false;
+    gtkGUI = getPkgConfig "emacs" "gtkSupport" true;
+    xftSupport = getPkgConfig "emacs" "xftSupport" true;
+    dbusSupport = getPkgConfig "emacs" "dbusSupport" true;
+  };
+
+  emacsSnapshot = lowPrio (import ../applications/editors/emacs-snapshot {
     inherit fetchcvs stdenv ncurses pkgconfig x11 Xaw3d
       libpng libjpeg libungif libtiff texinfo dbus
       autoconf automake;