diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/default.nix
index 2fff5cdce8543..94a8b54a4c312 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/neovim/default.nix
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ let
   neovimLuaEnv = lua.withPackages(ps:
     (with ps; [ lpeg luabitop mpack ]
     ++ optionals doCheck [
-        nvim-client luv coxpcall busted luafilesystem penlight inspect
+        nvim-client libluv coxpcall busted luafilesystem penlight inspect
       ]
     ));
 in
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ in
       libtermkey
       libuv
       libvterm-neovim
-      lua.pkgs.luv.libluv
+      lua.pkgs.libluv
       msgpack
       ncurses
       neovimLuaEnv
@@ -79,9 +79,6 @@ in
       "-DGPERF_PRG=${gperf}/bin/gperf"
       "-DLUA_PRG=${neovimLuaEnv.interpreter}"
     ]
-    # FIXME: this is verry messy and strange.
-    ++ optional (!stdenv.isDarwin) "-DLIBLUV_LIBRARY=${lua.pkgs.luv}/lib/lua/${lua.luaversion}/luv.so"
-    ++ optional (stdenv.isDarwin) "-DLIBLUV_LIBRARY=${lua.pkgs.luv.libluv}/lib/lua/${lua.luaversion}/libluv.dylib"
     ++ optional doCheck "-DBUSTED_PRG=${neovimLuaEnv}/bin/busted"
     ++ optional (!lua.pkgs.isLuaJIT) "-DPREFER_LUA=ON"
     ;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/lua-modules/generated-packages.nix b/pkgs/development/lua-modules/generated-packages.nix
index 2a4146577ff05..b75c4d24b2eec 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/lua-modules/generated-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/lua-modules/generated-packages.nix
@@ -1326,11 +1326,11 @@ luuid = buildLuarocksPackage {
 };
 luv = buildLuarocksPackage {
   pname = "luv";
-  version = "1.34.1-1";
+  version = "1.34.2-0";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url    = https://luarocks.org/luv-1.34.1-1.src.rock;
-    sha256 = "044cyp25xn35nj5qp1hx04lfkzrpa6adhqjshq2g7wvbga77p1q0";
+    url    = https://luarocks.org/luv-1.34.2-0.src.rock;
+    sha256 = "05c0s1a897yvk0qp31hra2b2qg6kr9fd4cib9hbrpxvzzn9a9cwc";
   };
   disabled = (luaOlder "5.1");
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ lua ];
diff --git a/pkgs/development/lua-modules/overrides.nix b/pkgs/development/lua-modules/overrides.nix
index fd99a70de3a62..5250440782171 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/lua-modules/overrides.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/lua-modules/overrides.nix
@@ -264,37 +264,38 @@ with super;
     disabled = luaOlder "5.1" || (luaAtLeast "5.4");
   });
 
+  compat53 = super.compat53.override (old: {
+    # needed for luv build
+    postInstall = ''
+      cp -r c-api $out/c-api
+    '';
+  });
+
   luv = super.luv.override({
-    # Use system libuv instead of building local and statically linking
-    # This is a hacky way to specify -DWITH_SHARED_LIBUV=ON which
-    # is not possible with luarocks and the current luv rockspec
-    # While at it, remove bundled libuv source entirely to be sure.
-    # We may wish to drop bundled lua submodules too...
-    preBuild = ''
-     sed -i 's,\(option(WITH_SHARED_LIBUV.*\)OFF,\1ON,' CMakeLists.txt
-     rm -rf deps/libuv
+    # So we can be sure no internal dependency is used from the repo and that
+    # everything is provided by us
+    preConfigure = ''
+      rm -rf deps
+    ''
+    # See the following issues:
+    # - https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/issues/1160
+    # - https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/issues/509
+    # - https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/issues/339
+    + ''
+      sed -i 's,\(option(WITH_SHARED_LIBUV.*\)OFF,\1ON,' CMakeLists.txt
     '';
+    LUA_COMPAT53_DIR="${lua.pkgs.compat53}";
 
     buildInputs = [ pkgs.libuv ];
 
-    passthru = {
-      libluv = self.luv.override ({
-        preBuild = self.luv.preBuild + ''
-          sed -i 's,\(option(BUILD_MODULE.*\)ON,\1OFF,' CMakeLists.txt
-          sed -i 's,\(option(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS.*\)OFF,\1ON,' CMakeLists.txt
-          sed -i 's,${"\${INSTALL_INC_DIR}"},${placeholder "out"}/include/luv,' CMakeLists.txt
-        '';
-
-        nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgs.fixDarwinDylibNames ];
-
-        # Fixup linking libluv.dylib, for some reason it's not linked against lua correctly.
-        NIX_LDFLAGS = pkgs.lib.optionalString pkgs.stdenv.isDarwin
-          (if isLuaJIT then "-lluajit-${lua.luaversion}" else "-llua");
-      });
-    };
+    nativeBuildInputs = [
+      lua.pkgs.compat53
+    ];
+    # Fixup linking libluv.dylib, for some reason it's not linked against lua correctly.
+    NIX_LDFLAGS = pkgs.lib.optionalString pkgs.stdenv.isDarwin
+      (if isLuaJIT then "-lluajit-${lua.luaversion}" else "-llua");
   });
 
-
   rapidjson = super.rapidjson.override({
     preBuild = ''
       sed -i '/set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS/d' CMakeLists.txt
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix
index 7f29d47a993c6..8bdba4c9c854c 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix
@@ -99,6 +99,63 @@ with self; {
 
   luarocks-nix = callPackage ../development/tools/misc/luarocks/luarocks-nix.nix { };
 
+  # This package is very much like `lua.pkgs.luv`, but it's not defined as a
+  # module because it fails to install some files if we use
+  # `buildLuarocksPackage` instead of `mkDerivation`. However, if another
+  # package (e.g lua.pkgs.nvim-client) would require `luv =
+  # stdenv.mkDerivation`, it would not detect it and hence it would fail to
+  # build.
+
+  # The workaround implemented here is to create 2 versions of `libluv` while
+  # `luv` is still defined by lua's generated packages and still overriden as
+  # necessary in lua's overrides. This version is used in neovim and every
+  # other package that needs luv as a shared library (not as a mere lua
+  # module).
+  libluv = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+    pname = "luv";
+    version = "1.34.2-0";
+
+    src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
+      owner = "luvit";
+      repo = pname;
+      rev = version;
+      sha256 = "0iq272n7p0wkll4a7d880qyhdp65582cwc3b2zzrirpli93x3v87";
+    };
+    disabled = (luaOlder "5.1");
+
+    # So we can be sure no internal dependency is used from the repo and that
+    # everything is provided by us
+    postUnpack = ''
+     rm -rf deps
+    '';
+
+    cmakeFlags = [
+      "-DWITH_SHARED_LIBUV=ON"
+      "-DLUA_BUILD_TYPE=System"
+      "-DBUILD_MODULE=ON"
+      "-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON"
+      "-DLUA_COMPAT53_DIR=${lua.pkgs.compat53}"
+    ];
+
+    buildInputs = [ pkgs.libuv ];
+
+    nativeBuildInputs = [
+      pkgs.cmake
+      lua.pkgs.compat53
+    ];
+    # Fixup linking libluv.dylib, for some reason it's not linked against lua correctly.
+    NIX_LDFLAGS = pkgs.lib.optionalString pkgs.stdenv.isDarwin
+      (if isLuaJIT then "-lluajit-${lua.luaversion}" else "-llua");
+    propagatedBuildInputs = [ lua ];
+
+    meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+      homepage = "https://github.com/luvit/luv";
+      description = "Bare libuv bindings for lua";
+      license = {
+        fullName = "Apache 2.0";
+      };
+    };
+  };
   luxio = buildLuaPackage rec {
     name = "luxio-${version}";
     version = "13";