diff --git a/src/libstore/globals.cc b/src/libstore/globals.cc
index 491c664db..ca2e75603 100644
--- a/src/libstore/globals.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/globals.cc
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ Settings::Settings()
 {
     buildUsersGroup = getuid() == 0 ? "nixbld" : "";
     lockCPU = getEnv("NIX_AFFINITY_HACK") == "1";
+    ignoreSymlinkStore = getEnv("NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE") == "1";
 
     caFile = getEnv("NIX_SSL_CERT_FILE").value_or(getEnv("SSL_CERT_FILE").value_or(""));
     if (caFile == "") {
diff --git a/src/libstore/globals.hh b/src/libstore/globals.hh
index 02721285a..129cef6b4 100644
--- a/src/libstore/globals.hh
+++ b/src/libstore/globals.hh
@@ -881,6 +881,19 @@ public:
 
     Setting<std::string> flakeRegistry{this, "https://github.com/NixOS/flake-registry/raw/master/flake-registry.json", "flake-registry",
         "Path or URI of the global flake registry."};
+
+    Setting<bool> ignoreSymlinkStore{
+        this, false, "ignore-symlink-store",
+        R"(
+	  If set to `true`, Nix will stop complaining if the store directory
+	  (typically /nix/store) contains symlink components.
+
+	  This risks making some builds "impure" because builders sometimes
+	  "canonicalise" paths by resolving all symlink components. Problems
+          occur if those builds are then deployed to machines where /nix/store
+          resolves to a different location from that of the build machine. You
+          can enable this setting if you are sure you're not going to do that.
+        )"};
 };
 
 
diff --git a/src/libstore/local-store.cc b/src/libstore/local-store.cc
index c618203f0..24b9ea7bd 100644
--- a/src/libstore/local-store.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/local-store.cc
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ LocalStore::LocalStore(const Params & params)
     }
 
     /* Ensure that the store and its parents are not symlinks. */
-    if (getEnv("NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE") != "1") {
+    if (!settings.ignoreSymlinkStore) {
         Path path = realStoreDir;
         struct stat st;
         while (path != "/") {