diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.4.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.4.nix
index 07784c426479..b0fb726e9c6f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.4.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.4.nix
@@ -122,7 +122,8 @@ let
   # Use gold either following the default, or to avoid the BFD linker due to some bugs / perf issues.
   # But we cannot avoid BFD when using musl libc due to https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23856
   # see #84670 and #49071 for more background.
-  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" || (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
+  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" ||
+    (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && (targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools.bintools.hasGold or false) && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
 
   runtimeDeps = [
     targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.8.4.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.8.4.nix
index bb2267c930de..74260af7d31c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.8.4.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.8.4.nix
@@ -131,7 +131,8 @@ let
   # Use gold either following the default, or to avoid the BFD linker due to some bugs / perf issues.
   # But we cannot avoid BFD when using musl libc due to https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23856
   # see #84670 and #49071 for more background.
-  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" || (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
+  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" ||
+    (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && (targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools.bintools.hasGold or false) && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
 
   runtimeDeps = [
     targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/9.0.1.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/9.0.1.nix
index 30a7f7a4f40a..37e03ccd4c9e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/9.0.1.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/9.0.1.nix
@@ -123,7 +123,8 @@ let
   # Use gold either following the default, or to avoid the BFD linker due to some bugs / perf issues.
   # But we cannot avoid BFD when using musl libc due to https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23856
   # see #84670 and #49071 for more background.
-  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" || (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
+  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" ||
+    (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && (targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools.bintools.hasGold or false) && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
 
   runtimeDeps = [
     targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix
index 35c0bd76214d..7aaaaeb417b0 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix
@@ -133,7 +133,8 @@ let
   # Use gold either following the default, or to avoid the BFD linker due to some bugs / perf issues.
   # But we cannot avoid BFD when using musl libc due to https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23856
   # see #84670 and #49071 for more background.
-  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" || (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
+  useLdGold = targetPlatform.linker == "gold" ||
+    (targetPlatform.linker == "bfd" && (targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools.bintools.hasGold or false) && !targetPlatform.isMusl);
 
   runtimeDeps = [
     targetPackages.stdenv.cc.bintools
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix
index d2b5f6e7ea3a..97f7a6dd8d03 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/binutils/default.nix
@@ -1,16 +1,24 @@
+let
+  execFormatIsELF = platform: platform.parsed.kernel.execFormat.name == "elf";
+in
+
 { stdenv, lib, buildPackages
 , fetchFromGitHub, fetchurl, zlib, autoreconfHook, gettext
 # Enabling all targets increases output size to a multiple.
 , withAllTargets ? false, libbfd, libopcodes
 , enableShared ? !stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic
 , noSysDirs
-, gold ? true
+, gold ? execFormatIsELF stdenv.targetPlatform
 , bison ? null
 , flex
 , texinfo
 , perl
 }:
 
+# configure silently disables ld.gold if it's unsupported,
+# so we need to make sure that intent matches result ourselves.
+assert gold -> execFormatIsELF stdenv.targetPlatform;
+
 # Note: this package is used for bootstrapping fetchurl, and thus
 # cannot use fetchpatch! All mutable patches (generated by GitHub or
 # cgit) that are needed here should be included directly in Nixpkgs as
@@ -168,6 +176,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
   passthru = {
     inherit targetPrefix;
+    hasGold = gold;
     isGNU = true;
   };