diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/stxxl/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/stxxl/default.nix
index 23590f17ca88..9fb25aa36e0a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/stxxl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/stxxl/default.nix
@@ -1,24 +1,38 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl, cmake, parallel ? true }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, cmake
+, parallel ? true
+}:
+
+let
+  mkFlag = optset: flag: if optset then "-D${flag}=ON" else "-D${flag}=OFF";
+in
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "stxxl-1.4.1";
+  name = "stxxl-${version}";
+  version = "1.4.1";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = "https://github.com/stxxl/stxxl/archive/1.4.1.tar.gz";
+    url = "https://github.com/stxxl/stxxl/archive/${version}.tar.gz";
     sha256 = "54006a5fccd1435abc2f3ec201997a4d7dacddb984d2717f62191798e5372f6c";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [ cmake ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake ];
 
-  cmakeFlags = let parallel_str = if parallel then "ON" else "OFF"; in "-DUSE_GNU_PARALLEL=${parallel_str}";
+  cmakeFlags = [
+    "-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON"
+    "-DBUILD_STATIC_LIBS=OFF"
+    "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release"
+    (mkFlag parallel "USE_GNU_PARALLEL")
+  ];
 
   passthru = {
     inherit parallel;
   };
 
-  meta = {
-    homepage = https://github.com/stxxl/stxxl;
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "An implementation of the C++ standard template library STL for external memory (out-of-core) computations";
-    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.boost;
+    homepage = https://github.com/stxxl/stxxl;
+    license = licenses.boost;
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ ];
+    platforms = platforms.all;
   };
 }