diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/zile/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/zile/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a9ce2e271728
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/zile/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+{ fetchurl, stdenv, ncurses, help2man }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "zile-2.3.2";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "mirror://gnu/zile/${name}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "17fk5wa4yy6anhikrkmgi2g1vrf68xpi0as4zkhnniz8bmncfy2j";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [ ncurses help2man ];
+
+  # Tests can't be run because most of them rely on the ability to
+  # fiddle with the terminal.
+  doCheck = false;
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "GNU Zile, a lightweight Emacs clone";
+
+    longDescription = ''
+      GNU Zile, which is a lightweight Emacs clone.  Zile is short
+      for Zile Is Lossy Emacs.  Zile has been written to be as
+      similar as possible to Emacs; every Emacs user should feel at
+      home.
+
+      Zile has all of Emacs's basic editing features: it is 8-bit
+      clean (though it currently lacks Unicode support), and the
+      number of editing buffers and windows is only limited by
+      available memory and screen space respectively.  Registers,
+      minibuffer completion and auto fill are available.  Function
+      and variable names are identical with Emacs's (except those
+      containing the word "emacs", which instead contain the word
+      "zile"!).
+
+      However, all of this is packed into a program which typically
+      compiles to about 130Kb.
+    '';
+
+    homepage = http://www.gnu.org/software/zile/;
+
+    license = "GPLv3+";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 0b31014083d8..ac4dc95ca596 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -1339,6 +1339,10 @@ let
     inherit fetchurl stdenv;
   };
 
+  zile = import ../applications/editors/zile {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv ncurses help2man;
+  };
+
   zip = import ../tools/archivers/zip {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv;
   };