diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/1.9.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/1.9.nix
index 75ec27e18ea5..0290567c1fff 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/1.9.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/1.9.nix
@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
 { fetchurl, stdenv, libtool, readline, gmp, pkgconfig, boehmgc, libunistring
-, gawk, makeWrapper }:
+, gawk, makeWrapper, coverageAnalysis ? null }:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+# Do either a coverage analysis build or a standard build.
+(if coverageAnalysis != null
+ then coverageAnalysis
+ else stdenv.mkDerivation)
+
+rec {
   name = "guile-1.9.4";  # This is an alpha release!
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guile/${name}.tar.gz";
@@ -11,6 +16,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   buildInputs = [ makeWrapper gawk readline libtool libunistring pkgconfig ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ gmp boehmgc ];
 
+  patches =
+    stdenv.lib.optionals (coverageAnalysis != null)
+      [ ./gcov-file-name.patch ./disable-gc-sensitive-tests.patch ];
+
   postInstall = ''
     wrapProgram $out/bin/guile-snarf --prefix PATH : "${gawk}/bin"
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/disable-gc-sensitive-tests.patch b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/disable-gc-sensitive-tests.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8a43e58f5f58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/disable-gc-sensitive-tests.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+This patch disable GC-sensitive tests.  This is particularly useful when
+compiling with `-O0' (as is done with coverage analysis) since there may
+be many false references held on the stack, leading to the failure of
+such tests.
+
+--- a/test-suite/tests/threads.test
++++ b/test-suite/tests/threads.test
+@@ -366,6 +366,7 @@
+ 	    (not (mutex-owner m))))
+ 
+         (pass-if "mutex with owner not retained (bug #27450)"
++          (throw 'unresolved)
+           (let ((g (make-guardian)))
+             (g (let ((m (make-mutex))) (lock-mutex m) m))
+ 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/gcov-file-name.patch b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/gcov-file-name.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f144296170ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/gcov-file-name.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+This patch arranges so that we don't end up, with profiling builds, with a
+file named `<stdout>.gcov' since that confuses lcov:
+
+  <stdout>:cannot open source file
+  geninfo: ERROR: cannot read <stdout>.gcov!
+
+--- guile/libguile/c-tokenize.c	2009-09-13 13:05:15.000000000 +0200
++++ guile/libguile/c-tokenize.c	2009-10-28 16:24:15.000000000 +0100
+@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
+ 
+-#line 3 "<stdout>"
++#line 3 "c-tokenize.c"
+ 
+ #define  YY_INT_ALIGNED short int
+ 
+@@ -616,7 +616,7 @@ int cookie_was_last = 0; 
+ #define IS_COOKIE cookie_was_last = 1
+ #define IS_NOT_COOKIE cookie_was_last = 0
+  
+-#line 620 "<stdout>"
++#line 620 "c-tokenize.c"
+ 
+ #define INITIAL 0
+ 
+@@ -799,7 +799,7 @@ YY_DECL
+ #line 65 "./c-tokenize.lex"
+ 
+ 
+-#line 803 "<stdout>"
++#line 803 "c-tokenize.c"
+ 
+ 	if ( !(yy_init) )
+ 		{
+@@ -1235,7 +1235,7 @@ YY_RULE_SETUP
+ #line 181 "./c-tokenize.lex"
+ ECHO;
+ 	YY_BREAK
+-#line 1239 "<stdout>"
++#line 1239 "c-tokenize.c"
+ case YY_STATE_EOF(INITIAL):
+ 	yyterminate();
+ 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index d68d8be36a8c..1967252199fb 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -2333,6 +2333,12 @@ let
       libunistring pkgconfig boehmgc;
   };
 
+  guile_1_9_coverage = import ../development/interpreters/guile/1.9.nix {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv readline libtool gmp gawk makeWrapper
+      libunistring pkgconfig boehmgc;
+    inherit (releaseTools) coverageAnalysis;
+  };
+
   io = builderDefsPackage (import ../development/interpreters/io) {
     inherit sqlite zlib gmp libffi cairo ncurses freetype mesa
       libpng libtiff libjpeg readline libsndfile libxml2
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/guile-2-test.nix b/pkgs/top-level/guile-2-test.nix
index 305e7ab9650e..2f221f69c097 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/guile-2-test.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/guile-2-test.nix
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ in (mapTestOn {
    */
 
   guile = linux;
+  guile_1_9_coverage = linux;
 
   autogen = linux;
   lsh = linux;