diff --git a/doc/manual/env-common.xml b/doc/manual/env-common.xml
index 75ce39f406547a71aeab3d249a4606aa0eeccd25..89ee78c768068cc0858fce94860cde41a6bf56d6 100644
--- a/doc/manual/env-common.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/env-common.xml
@@ -10,17 +10,6 @@
 <variablelist>
 
   
-<varlistentry><term><envar>NIX_ROOT</envar></term>
-
-  <listitem><para>If <envar>NIX_ROOT</envar> is set, the Nix command
-  will on startup perform a <function>chroot()</function> to the
-  specified directory.  This is useful in certain bootstrapping
-  situations (e.g., when installing a Nix installation onto a hard
-  disk from CD-ROM).</para></listitem>
-
-</varlistentry>
-
-  
 <varlistentry><term><envar>NIX_IGNORE_SYMLINK_STORE</envar></term>
 
   <listitem>
diff --git a/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in b/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in
index c5400a901af20197448a50e221cd02611c76f95d..2ef98e3466b1f6c997c9690949ef9760b5c945c4 100644
--- a/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in
+++ b/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in
@@ -10,8 +10,6 @@ my $logFile = "@localstatedir@/log/nix/downloads";
 
 open LOGFILE, ">>$logFile" or die "cannot open log file $logFile";
 
-delete $ENV{"NIX_ROOT"};
-
 # Create a temporary directory.
 my $tmpDir = tempdir("nix-download.XXXXXX", CLEANUP => 1, TMPDIR => 1)
     or die "cannot create a temporary directory";
diff --git a/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in b/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in
index 4c18899da7a0eaf7eee643bbfea6daf52289e89c..0f1c95c7e828bbabad744a16333519f748fb71ad 100644
--- a/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in
@@ -3,9 +3,6 @@
 url=$1
 expHash=$2
 
-# to prevent doing more than 1 chroot
-unset NIX_ROOT
-
 # needed to make it work on NixOS
 export PATH=$PATH:@coreutils@
 
diff --git a/src/libmain/shared.cc b/src/libmain/shared.cc
index f1a7db40dc9145b6ee360bce600657d8bd89174f..ca0a6e4010848239a7649419dc0ad4fe521cc022 100644
--- a/src/libmain/shared.cc
+++ b/src/libmain/shared.cc
@@ -85,12 +85,6 @@ void initDerivationsHelpers();
    processor. */
 static void initAndRun(int argc, char * * argv)
 {
-    string root = getEnv("NIX_ROOT");
-    if (root != "") {
-        if (chroot(root.c_str()) != 0)
-            throw SysError(format("changing root to `%1%'") % root);
-    }
-    
     /* Setup Nix paths. */
     nixStore = canonPath(getEnv("NIX_STORE_DIR", getEnv("NIX_STORE", NIX_STORE_DIR)));
     nixDataDir = canonPath(getEnv("NIX_DATA_DIR", NIX_DATA_DIR));