diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/xalanc/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/xalanc/default.nix
index 8284fd7707fe..28575f4c5d5e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/xalanc/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/xalanc/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, xercesc }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, xercesc, getopt }:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+let
+  platform = if stdenv.isLinux then "linux" else
+             if stdenv.isDarwin then "macosx" else
+             throw "Unsupported platform";
+in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "xalan-c-${version}";
   version = "1.11";
 
@@ -9,20 +13,21 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "0a3a2b15vpacnqgpp6fiy1pwyc8q6ywzvyb5445f6wixfdspypjg";
   };
 
+  # TODO: should we really be putting outputs in $out/usr? I'd expect -P$out below
   configurePhase = ''
     export XALANCROOT=`pwd`/c
     cd `pwd`/c
     mkdir -p $out/usr
-    ./runConfigure -p linux -c gcc -x g++ -P$out/usr
+    ./runConfigure -p ${platform} -c cc -x c++ -P$out/usr
   '';
 
-  buildInputs = [ xercesc ];
+  buildInputs = [ xercesc getopt ];
 
   meta = {
     homepage = http://xalan.apache.org/;
     description = "A XSLT processor for transforming XML documents";
     license = stdenv.lib.licenses.asl20;
-    platforms = stdenv.lib.platforms.linux;
+    platforms = stdenv.lib.platforms.linux ++ stdenv.lib.platforms.darwin;
     maintainers = [ stdenv.lib.maintainers.jagajaga ];
   };
 }