diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/glibc/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/glibc/default.nix
index 1c822bf1ed019..11676560e80b1 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/glibc/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/glibc/default.nix
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 , profilingLibraries ? false
 , withGd ? false
 , withLibcrypt? false
-, buildPackages
+, pkgsBuildBuild
 , libgcc
 }:
 
@@ -95,17 +95,26 @@ in
         "user-defined-trusted-dirs=${libgcc}/lib"
       ];
 
-    postInstall = previousAttrs.postInstall + (if stdenv.hostPlatform == stdenv.buildPlatform then ''
+    postInstall = previousAttrs.postInstall + (if stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute stdenv.hostPlatform then ''
       echo SUPPORTED-LOCALES=C.UTF-8/UTF-8 > ../glibc-2*/localedata/SUPPORTED
       make -j''${NIX_BUILD_CORES:-1} localedata/install-locales
-    '' else lib.optionalString stdenv.buildPlatform.isLinux ''
+    '' else lib.optionalString stdenv.buildPlatform.isLinux
       # This is based on http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/development/chapter06/glibc.html
       # Instead of using their patch to build a build-native localedef,
-      # we simply use the one from buildPackages
+      # we simply use the one from pkgsBuildBuild.
+      #
+      # Note that we can't use pkgsBuildHost (aka buildPackages) here, because
+      # that will cause an eval-time infinite recursion: "buildPackages.glibc
+      # depended on buildPackages.libgcc, which, since it's GCC, depends on the
+      # target's bintools, which depend on the target's glibc, which, again,
+      # depends on buildPackages.glibc, causing an infinute recursion when
+      # evaluating buildPackages.glibc when glibc hasn't come from stdenv
+      # (e.g. on musl)." https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/259964
+    ''
       pushd ../glibc-2*/localedata
       export I18NPATH=$PWD GCONV_PATH=$PWD/../iconvdata
-      mkdir -p $NIX_BUILD_TOP/${buildPackages.glibc}/lib/locale
-      ${lib.getBin buildPackages.glibc}/bin/localedef \
+      mkdir -p $NIX_BUILD_TOP/${pkgsBuildBuild.glibc}/lib/locale
+      ${lib.getBin pkgsBuildBuild.glibc}/bin/localedef \
         --alias-file=../intl/locale.alias \
         -i locales/C \
         -f charmaps/UTF-8 \
@@ -115,7 +124,7 @@ in
           else
             "--big-endian"} \
         C.UTF-8
-      cp -r $NIX_BUILD_TOP/${buildPackages.glibc}/lib/locale $out/lib
+      cp -r $NIX_BUILD_TOP/${pkgsBuildBuild.glibc}/lib/locale $out/lib
       popd
     '') + ''