diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/8.0.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/8.1.nix
similarity index 85%
rename from pkgs/development/libraries/readline/8.0.nix
rename to pkgs/development/libraries/readline/8.1.nix
index 9ea0277467e..35835c1a143 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/8.0.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/8.1.nix
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
-{ fetchurl, lib, stdenv, ncurses
+{ fetchurl, stdenv, lib, ncurses
 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "readline";
-  version = "8.0p${toString (builtins.length upstreamPatches)}";
+  version = "8.1p${toString (builtins.length upstreamPatches)}";
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "mirror://gnu/readline/readline-${meta.branch}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "0qg4924hf4hg0r0wbx2chswsr08734536fh5iagkd3a7f4czafg3";
+    sha256 = "00ibp0n9crbwx15k9vvckq5wsipw98b1px8pd8i34chy2gpb9kpq";
   };
 
   outputs = [ "out" "dev" "man" "doc" "info" ];
@@ -20,11 +20,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     (let
        patch = nr: sha256:
          fetchurl {
-           url = "mirror://gnu/readline/readline-${meta.branch}-patches/readline80-${nr}";
+           url = "mirror://gnu/readline/readline-${meta.branch}-patches/readline81-${nr}";
            inherit sha256;
          };
      in
-       import ./readline-8.0-patches.nix patch);
+       import ./readline-8.1-patches.nix patch);
 
   patches =
     [ ./link-against-ncurses.patch
@@ -57,6 +57,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     maintainers = with maintainers; [ dtzWill ];
 
     platforms = platforms.unix;
-    branch = "8.0";
+    branch = "8.1";
   };
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/readline-8.0-patches.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/readline-8.0-patches.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 2fac6a413c7..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/readline-8.0-patches.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-# Automatically generated by `update-patch-set.sh'; do not edit.
-
-patch: [
-(patch "001" "0sfh7wn0pr743xspnb1zndxndlv9rc0hcg14cbw5cmyg6f4ykrfq")
-(patch "002" "1xy8mv8xm8hsfixwp3ci9kfx3dii3y92cq27wwd0jq75y6zzxc1n")
-(patch "003" "1vza7sxjcsr2z295ij12nzgncdil1vb6as3mqy4m7svi1chv5pcl")
-(patch "004" "0k1rfx9w32lglxg564yvp0mw6jg6883p8ac2f2lxxqpf80m3vami")
-]
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/readline-8.1-patches.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/readline-8.1-patches.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b8019fb3350
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/readline/readline-8.1-patches.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Automatically generated by `update-patch-set.sh'; do not edit.
+
+patch: [
+]
diff --git a/pkgs/shells/bash/5.1.nix b/pkgs/shells/bash/5.1.nix
index d234b18e6c9..ddf2edfd1db 100644
--- a/pkgs/shells/bash/5.1.nix
+++ b/pkgs/shells/bash/5.1.nix
@@ -7,14 +7,14 @@
 
   # patch for cygwin requires readline support
 , interactive ? stdenv.isCygwin
-, readline80 ? null
+, readline81 ? null
 , withDocs ? false
 , texinfo ? null
 }:
 
 with lib;
 
-assert interactive -> readline80 != null;
+assert interactive -> readline81 != null;
 assert withDocs -> texinfo != null;
 assert stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin -> binutils != null;
 let
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     ++ optional withDocs texinfo
     ++ optional stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin binutils;
 
-  buildInputs = optional interactive readline80;
+  buildInputs = optional interactive readline81;
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
index 309d2ab58e2..83d91778a0c 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
@@ -627,6 +627,7 @@ mapAliases ({
   rdf4store = throw "rdf4store has been removed from nixpkgs."; # added 2019-12-21
   rdiff_backup = rdiff-backup;  # added 2014-11-23
   rdmd = dtools;  # added 2017-08-19
+  readline80 = throw "readline-8.0 is no longer supported in nixpkgs, please use 'readline' for main supported version or 'readline81' for most recent version"; # added 2021-04-22
   rhc = throw "rhc was deprecated on 2019-04-09: abandoned by upstream.";
   rng_tools = rng-tools; # added 2018-10-24
   robomongo = robo3t; #added 2017-09-28
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 6e2d25dfda5..2cb71847570 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -13615,7 +13615,7 @@ in
 
   gdb = callPackage ../development/tools/misc/gdb {
     guile = null;
-    readline = readline80;
+    readline = readline81;
   };
 
   jhiccup = callPackage ../development/tools/java/jhiccup { };
@@ -16122,7 +16122,7 @@ in
   libpwquality = callPackage ../development/libraries/libpwquality { };
 
   libqalculate = callPackage ../development/libraries/libqalculate {
-    readline = readline80;
+    readline = readline81;
   };
 
   libqt5pas = libsForQt5.callPackage ../development/compilers/fpc/libqt5pas.nix { };
@@ -16652,7 +16652,7 @@ in
   notify-sharp = callPackage ../development/libraries/notify-sharp { };
 
   notcurses = callPackage ../development/libraries/notcurses {
-    readline = readline80;
+    readline = readline81;
   };
 
   ncurses5 = ncurses.override {
@@ -17222,7 +17222,7 @@ in
 
   readline70 = callPackage ../development/libraries/readline/7.0.nix { };
 
-  readline80 = callPackage ../development/libraries/readline/8.0.nix { };
+  readline81 = callPackage ../development/libraries/readline/8.1.nix { };
 
   readosm = callPackage ../development/libraries/readosm { };