diff --git a/release.nix b/release.nix
index 1f91e23b5..c43925792 100644
--- a/release.nix
+++ b/release.nix
@@ -93,6 +93,14 @@ let
           --sysconfdir=/etc
         '';
 
+        # Provide a default value for the ‘build-chroot-dirs’ setting
+        # that includes /bin/sh pointing to bash.
+        preHook = lib.optionalString stdenv.isLinux (
+          let sh = stdenv.shell; in
+          ''
+            NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE+=" -DDEFAULT_CHROOT_DIRS=\"/bin/sh=${sh}:$(tr '\n' ':' < ${writeReferencesToFile sh})\""
+          '');
+
         enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
         makeFlags = "profiledir=$(out)/etc/profile.d";
diff --git a/src/libstore/globals.cc b/src/libstore/globals.cc
index e9fe0beca..77f25005b 100644
--- a/src/libstore/globals.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/globals.cc
@@ -48,6 +48,9 @@ Settings::Settings()
     useSubstitutes = true;
     buildUsersGroup = getuid() == 0 ? "nixbld" : "";
     useChroot = false;
+#ifdef DEFAULT_CHROOT_DIRS
+    dirsInChroot = tokenizeString<StringSet>(DEFAULT_CHROOT_DIRS, ":");
+#endif
     useSshSubstituter = true;
     impersonateLinux26 = false;
     keepLog = true;