diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/busybox/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/busybox/default.nix
index 087209a9d29d..40b44514f1b3 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/busybox/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/busybox/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 { stdenv, lib, buildPackages, fetchurl
 , enableStatic ? false
 , enableMinimal ? false
+# Allow forcing musl without switching stdenv itself, e.g. for our bootstrapping:
+# nix build -f pkgs/top-level/release.nix stdenvBootstrapTools.x86_64-linux.dist
 , useMusl ? stdenv.hostPlatform.libc == "musl", musl
 , extraConfig ? ""
 }:
@@ -88,6 +90,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     runHook postConfigure
   '';
 
+  postConfigure = lib.optionalString (useMusl && stdenv.hostPlatform.libc != "musl") ''
+    makeFlagsArray+=("CC=${stdenv.cc.targetPrefix}cc -isystem ${musl.dev}/include -B${musl}/lib -L${musl}/lib")
+  '';
+
   depsBuildBuild = [ buildPackages.stdenv.cc ];
 
   buildInputs = lib.optionals (enableStatic && !useMusl && stdenv.cc.libc ? static) [ stdenv.cc.libc stdenv.cc.libc.static ];