diff --git a/package/exim/0006-remove-libnsl.patch b/package/exim/0006-remove-libnsl.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8ca53c9acb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/exim/0006-remove-libnsl.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+From b722f8fc01f6b1d71c98c0c66f759935b0dac136 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Romain Naour <romain.naour@gmail.com>
+Date: Sat, 19 May 2018 20:36:41 +0200
+Subject: [PATCH] remove libnsl
+
+glibc now considers its built-in libnsl as being obsolete, and requires
+passing --enable-obsolete-libnsl to have it built and installed. libnsl
+is now provided as a separate project [1], but it isn't packaged yet in
+Buildroot.
+
+Exim's nis.so and nisplus.so lookup modules require libnsl,
+but they are not build by default. So we can safely remove -lnsl
+from the Makefile-Linux.
+
+[1] https://github.com/thkukuk/libnsl.git
+
+Signed-off-by: Romain Naour <romain.naour@gmail.com>
+---
+ OS/Makefile-Linux | 2 +-
+ 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
+
+diff --git a/OS/Makefile-Linux b/OS/Makefile-Linux
+index 990f884..ea5644b 100644
+--- a/OS/Makefile-Linux
++++ b/OS/Makefile-Linux
+@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ CFLAGS_DYNAMIC ?= -shared -rdynamic
+ DBMLIB = -ldb
+ USE_DB = yes
+ 
+-LIBS = -lnsl -lcrypt -lm
++LIBS = -lcrypt -lm
+ LIBRESOLV = -lresolv
+ 
+ X11=/usr/X11R6
+-- 
+2.14.3
+
diff --git a/package/exim/exim.mk b/package/exim/exim.mk
index 37eab501a4..bde2df1153 100644
--- a/package/exim/exim.mk
+++ b/package/exim/exim.mk
@@ -72,14 +72,6 @@ define EXIM_USE_DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE_OPENSSL
 endef
 endif
 
-# only glibc provides libnsl, remove -lnsl for all other toolchains
-# http://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1564
-ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_GLIBC),)
-define EXIM_REMOVE_LIBNSL_FROM_MAKEFILE
-	$(SED) 's/-lnsl//g' $(@D)/OS/Makefile-Linux
-endef
-endif
-
 # musl does not provide struct ip_options nor struct ip_opts (but it is
 # available with both glibc and uClibc)
 ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_MUSL),y)
@@ -96,7 +88,6 @@ define EXIM_CONFIGURE_TOOLCHAIN
 	$(call exim-config-add,RANLIB,$(TARGET_RANLIB))
 	$(call exim-config-add,HOSTCC,$(HOSTCC))
 	$(call exim-config-add,HOSTCFLAGS,$(HOSTCFLAGS))
-	$(EXIM_REMOVE_LIBNSL_FROM_MAKEFILE)
 	$(EXIM_FIX_IP_OPTIONS_FOR_MUSL)
 endef