diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/cmocka/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/cmocka/default.nix
index 746b47841580..718377a7ca53 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/cmocka/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/cmocka/default.nix
@@ -1,16 +1,21 @@
 { fetchurl, fetchpatch, lib, stdenv, cmake }:
-
+let
+  # Temporary split to save rebuilds; see PR #217469
+  isUpdated = with stdenv; isDarwin && isAarch64;
+in
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "cmocka";
   majorVersion = "1.1";
-  version = "${majorVersion}.5";
+  version = "${majorVersion}." + (if isUpdated then "6" else "5");
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "https://cmocka.org/files/${majorVersion}/cmocka-${version}.tar.xz";
-    sha256 = "1dm8pdvkyfa8dsbz9bpq7wwgixjij4sii9bbn5sgvqjm5ljdik7h";
+    sha256 = if isUpdated
+      then "0xksffx1w3pzm18ynf28cx8scrhylcbz43s1rgkkdqnyil1q6cjv"
+      else "1dm8pdvkyfa8dsbz9bpq7wwgixjij4sii9bbn5sgvqjm5ljdik7h";
   };
 
-  patches = [
+  patches = lib.optionals (!isUpdated) [
     (fetchpatch {
       name = "musl-uintptr.patch";
       url = "https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/plain/main/cmocka/musl_uintptr.patch?id=6a15dd0d0ba9cc354a621fb359ca5e315ff2eabd";