diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0c3b046608
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "nix-upstream"]
+	path = nix-upstream
+	url = http://github.com/NixOS/nix.git
diff --git a/nix-upstream b/nix-upstream
new file mode 160000
index 0000000000..8eed07cda4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nix-upstream
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 8eed07cda4c193bfcdd6ac4345ac6fb54aee0269