Try #1794:

builder/shell-for.nix

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 , withHoogle ? true
 , withHaddock ? withHoogle
 , exactDeps ? false
+, allToolDeps ? !exactDeps
 , tools ? {}
 , packageSetupDeps ? true
 , enableDWARF ? false
@@ -109,8 +110,11 @@ let
   nativeBuildInputs = removeSelectedInputs
     (uniqueWithName (lib.concatMap (c: c.executableToolDepends)
       # When not using `exactDeps` cabal may try to build arbitrary dependencies
-      # so in this case we need to provide the build tools for all of hsPkgs:
-      (if exactDeps then selectedComponents else allHsPkgsComponents)));
+      # so in this case we need to provide the build tools for all of `hsPkgs`.
+      # In some cases those tools may be unwanted or broken so the `allToolDeps`
+      # flag can be set to `false` to disable this (stack projects default `allToolDeps`
+      # to `false` as `hsPkgs` for them includes all of stackage):
+      (if exactDeps || !allToolDeps then selectedComponents else allHsPkgsComponents)));
 
   # Set up a "dummy" component to use with ghcForComponent.
   component = {

modules/shell.nix

@@ -29,6 +29,16 @@
       type = lib.types.bool;
       default = false;
     };
+    allToolDeps = lib.mkOption {
+      type = lib.types.bool;
+      default = !config.exactDeps;
+      description = ''
+        Indicates if the shell should include all the tool dependencies
+        of in the haskell packages in the project.  Defaulted to `false` in
+        stack projects (to avoid trying to build the tools used by
+        every `stackage` package).
+      '';
+    };
     tools = lib.mkOption {
       type = lib.types.attrsOf lib.types.unspecified;
       default = {};

modules/stack-project.nix

@@ -91,4 +91,9 @@ with types;
       description = "Deprecated in favour of `compiler-nix-name`";
     };
   };
+  config = {
+    # For stack projects we normally do not want to include the tool dependencies
+    # of all the hsPkgs (all of stackage).
+    shell.allToolDeps = mkDefault false;
+  };
 }