diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/di/direnv/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/di/direnv/package.nix
index 97f11d335be6..096de4eec6a5 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/di/direnv/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/di/direnv/package.nix
@@ -28,6 +28,13 @@ buildGoModule (finalAttrs: {
   # Build a static executable to avoid environment runtime impurities
   env.CGO_ENABLED = 0;
 
+  # With CGO disabled the internal linker is used by default; remove the
+  # explicit -linkmode=external flag from the Makefile which is incompatible
+  # with CGO_ENABLED=0 (see https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/486452)
+  postPatch = ''
+    substituteInPlace GNUmakefile --replace-fail " -linkmode=external" ""
+  '';
+
   # replace the build phase to use the GNUMakefile instead
   buildPhase = ''
     make BASH_PATH=$BASH_PATH