diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
index 539bb5fd3500..5f5938d25cae 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ releaseTools.makeSourceTarball {
   '';
 
   distPhase = ''
+    find . -name "\.svn" -exec rm -rvf {} \; -prune
+  
     ensureDir $out/tarballs
     mkdir ../$releaseName
     cp -prd . ../$releaseName