diff --git a/pkgs/tools/system/which/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/system/which/default.nix
index aecf68e8c7fa..82316541f4c7 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/system/which/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/system/which/default.nix
@@ -12,6 +12,13 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   strictDeps = true;
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
+  env.NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = toString (
+    # Enable 64-bit file API. Otherwise `which` fails to find tools
+    # on filesystems with 64-bit inodes (like `btrfs`) when running
+    # binaries from 32-bit systems (like `i686-linux`).
+    lib.optional stdenv.hostPlatform.is32bit "-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64"
+  );
+
   meta = with lib; {
     homepage = "https://www.gnu.org/software/which/";
     description = "Shows the full path of (shell) commands";