diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/default.nix
index a60b12667fa7..4f85fc52343a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/default.nix
@@ -122,6 +122,11 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation {
   outputs = [ "out" "installer" ];
   setOutputFlags = false;
 
+  # Work around https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/166205.
+  env = lib.optionalAttrs stdenv.cc.isClang {
+    NIX_LDFLAGS = "-l${stdenv.cc.libcxx.cxxabi.libName}";
+  };
+
   # change argv0 to "opam" as a workaround for
   # https://github.com/ocaml/opam/issues/2142
   postInstall = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/opam.nix.pl b/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/opam.nix.pl
index 412a1a30e70d..77c574cb9321 100755
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/opam.nix.pl
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/ocaml/opam/opam.nix.pl
@@ -112,6 +112,11 @@ print <<'EOF';
   outputs = [ "out" "installer" ];
   setOutputFlags = false;
 
+  # Work around https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/166205.
+  env = lib.optionalAttrs stdenv.cc.isClang {
+    NIX_LDFLAGS = "-l${stdenv.cc.libcxx.cxxabi.libName}";
+  };
+
   # change argv0 to "opam" as a workaround for
   # https://github.com/ocaml/opam/issues/2142
   postInstall = ''