diff --git a/package/exim/exim.mk b/package/exim/exim.mk
index b852793574..8ad0328d34 100644
--- a/package/exim/exim.mk
+++ b/package/exim/exim.mk
@@ -72,6 +72,14 @@ define EXIM_USE_DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE_OPENSSL
 endef
 endif
 
+# only (e)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
+
 define EXIM_CONFIGURE_TOOLCHAIN
 	$(call exim-config-add,CC,$(TARGET_CC))
 	$(call exim-config-add,CFLAGS,$(TARGET_CFLAGS))