diff --git a/pkgs/tools/text/gnugrep/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/text/gnugrep/default.nix
index 9b36dad6cfe2..b0a95beb56ca 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/text/gnugrep/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/text/gnugrep/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {stdenv, fetchurl, pcre}:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
+stdenv.mkDerivation ({
   name = "gnugrep-2.5.3";
   
   src = fetchurl {
@@ -14,4 +14,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     homepage = http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/;
     description = "GNU implementation of the Unix grep command";
   };
-}
+} // (if stdenv.system == "i686-darwin" then {
+  preBuild = ''
+    makeFlagsArray=(mkdir_p="mkdir -p")
+  '';
+} else {}))
\ No newline at end of file