diff --git a/system/options.nix b/system/options.nix
index 9ce0daf9de72..20152ddc2061 100644
--- a/system/options.nix
+++ b/system/options.nix
@@ -2286,6 +2286,12 @@ in
           How to authorize users. 
           Note: ident needs absolute trust to all allowed client hosts.";
       };
+      enableTCPIP = mkOption {
+        default = false;
+        description = "
+          Whether to run PostgreSQL with -i flag to enable TCP/IP connections.
+        ";
+      };
     };
 
     
diff --git a/upstart-jobs/postgresql.nix b/upstart-jobs/postgresql.nix
index a37780678fc9..83ab1d5962de 100644
--- a/upstart-jobs/postgresql.nix
+++ b/upstart-jobs/postgresql.nix
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ let
 
 in
 
-{
+rec {
   name = "postgresql";
 
   users = [
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ in
 
   extraPath = [postgresql];
 
+  flags = 
+    if cfg.enableTCPIP then ["-i"] else [] ;
+
   job = ''
     description "PostgreSQL server"
 
@@ -43,6 +46,6 @@ in
         cp -f ${pkgs.writeText "pg_hba.conf" cfg.authentication} ${cfg.dataDir}/pg_hba.conf
     end script
 
-    respawn ${run} -c '${postgresql}/bin/postgres -D ${cfg.dataDir}'
+    respawn ${run} -c '${postgresql}/bin/postgres -D ${cfg.dataDir} ${toString flags}'
   '';
 }