diff --git a/nixos/tests/postgresql.nix b/nixos/tests/postgresql.nix
index b5f4e1a4c14c..54e7ec9ba17b 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/postgresql.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/postgresql.nix
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ let
     INSERT INTO sth (id) VALUES (1);
     INSERT INTO sth (id) VALUES (1);
     INSERT INTO sth (id) VALUES (1);
+    CREATE TABLE xmltest ( doc xml );
+    INSERT INTO xmltest (doc) VALUES ('<test>ok</test>'); -- check if libxml2 enabled
   '';
   make-postgresql-test = postgresql-name: postgresql-package: makeTest {
     name = postgresql-name;
@@ -41,6 +43,7 @@ let
       $machine->fail('test $(psql postgres -tAc "SELECT * FROM sth;"|wc -l) -eq 3');
       $machine->succeed('test $(psql postgres -tAc "SELECT * FROM sth;"|wc -l) -eq 5');
       $machine->fail('test $(psql postgres -tAc "SELECT * FROM sth;"|wc -l) -eq 4');
+      $machine->succeed('test $(psql postgres -tAc "SELECT xpath(\'/test/text()\', doc) FROM xmltest;"|wc -l) -eq 1');
       $machine->shutdown;
     '';
 
diff --git a/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/default.nix
index 2362ee843296..363fbe51adfb 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, glibc, fetchurl, zlib, readline, libossp_uuid, openssl, makeWrapper }:
+{ lib, stdenv, glibc, fetchurl, zlib, readline, libossp_uuid, openssl, libxml2, makeWrapper }:
 
 let
 
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ let
     setOutputFlags = false; # $out retains configureFlags :-/
 
     buildInputs =
-      [ zlib readline openssl makeWrapper ]
+      [ zlib readline openssl libxml2 makeWrapper ]
       ++ lib.optionals (!stdenv.isDarwin) [ libossp_uuid ];
 
     enableParallelBuilding = true;
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ let
 
     configureFlags = [
       "--with-openssl"
+      "--with-libxml"
       "--sysconfdir=/etc"
       "--libdir=$(lib)/lib"
     ]