diff --git a/pkgs/tools/compression/bzip2/1_1.nix b/pkgs/tools/compression/bzip2/1_1.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3f6105ca507
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/compression/bzip2/1_1.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+{ stdenv
+, fetchFromGitLab
+, meson
+, python3
+, ninja
+}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  pname = "bzip2-unstable";
+  version = "2020-08-11";
+
+  src = fetchFromGitLab {
+    owner = "federicomenaquintero";
+    repo = "bzip2";
+    rev = "15255b553e7c095fb7a26d4dc5819a11352ebba1";
+    sha256 = "sha256-BAyz35D62LWi47B/gNcCSKpdaECHBGSpt21vtnk3fKs=";
+  };
+
+  postPatch = ''
+    patchShebangs install_links.py
+  '';
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    meson
+    python3
+    ninja
+  ];
+
+  outputs = [ "bin" "dev" "out" "man" ];
+
+  mesonFlags = [
+    "-Ddocs=disabled"
+  ];
+
+  strictDeps = true;
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "High-quality data compression program";
+    license = licenses.bsdOriginal;
+    platforms = platforms.all;
+    maintainers = [];
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 5a545b124a8..88a846a3f18 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -2577,6 +2577,8 @@ in
 
   bzip2 = callPackage ../tools/compression/bzip2 { };
 
+  bzip2_1_1 = callPackage ../tools/compression/bzip2/1_1.nix { };
+
   cabextract = callPackage ../tools/archivers/cabextract { };
 
   cadaver = callPackage ../tools/networking/cadaver {