diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/boost-build/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/boost-build/default.nix
index 5016aa590b5f..c6c66d4d212d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/boost-build/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/boost-build/default.nix
@@ -2,18 +2,36 @@
 , stdenv
 , fetchFromGitHub
 , bison
+# boost derivation to use for the src and version.
+# This is used by the boost derivation to build
+# a b2 matching their version (by overriding this
+# argument). Infinite recursion is not an issue
+# since we only look at src and version of boost.
+, useBoost ? {}
 }:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  pname = "boost-build";
-  version = "4.4.1";
+let
+  defaultVersion = "4.4.1";
+in
 
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  pname = "boost-build";
+  version =
+    if useBoost ? version
+    then "boost-${useBoost.version}"
+    else defaultVersion;
+
+  src = useBoost.src or (fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "boostorg";
     repo = "build";
-    rev = version;
+    rev = defaultVersion;
     sha256 = "1r4rwlq87ydmsdqrik4ly5iai796qalvw7603mridg2nwcbbnf54";
-  };
+  });
+
+  # b2 is in a subdirectory of boost source tarballs
+  postUnpack = lib.optionalString (useBoost ? src) ''
+    sourceRoot="$sourceRoot/tools/build"
+  '';
 
   patches = [
     # Upstream defaults to gcc on darwin, but we use clang.
@@ -32,8 +50,13 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   installPhase = ''
     runHook preInstall
+
     ./b2 install --prefix="$out"
-    ln -s b2 "$out/bin/bjam"
+
+    # older versions of b2 created this symlink,
+    # which we want to support building via useBoost.
+    test -e "$out/bin/bjam" || ln -s b2 "$out/bin/bjam"
+
     runHook postInstall
   '';