diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/logging/logrotate.nix b/nixos/modules/services/logging/logrotate.nix
index 082cf92ff4efe..8dfece8109d3a 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/logging/logrotate.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/logging/logrotate.nix
@@ -97,12 +97,18 @@ let
   '';
 
   paths = sortProperties (attrValues (filterAttrs (_: pathOpts: pathOpts.enable) cfg.paths));
-  configFile = pkgs.writeText "logrotate.conf" (
-    concatStringsSep "\n" (
+  configText = concatStringsSep "\n" (
       [ "missingok" "notifempty" cfg.extraConfig ] ++ (map mkConf paths)
-    )
-  );
-
+    );
+  configFile = pkgs.writeText "logrotate.conf" configText;
+
+  mailOption =
+    # add mail option to service if a mail is requested in config
+    # this ugly match will be replaced by cleaner attribute check in
+    # the near future
+    if builtins.match "(.*[[:space:]])?mail[[:space:]].*" configText != null
+    then "--mail=${pkgs.mailutils}/bin/mail"
+    else "";
 in
 {
   imports = [
@@ -172,7 +178,7 @@ in
       serviceConfig = {
         Restart = "no";
         User = "root";
-        ExecStart = "${pkgs.logrotate}/sbin/logrotate ${configFile}";
+        ExecStart = "${pkgs.logrotate}/sbin/logrotate ${mailOption} ${configFile}";
       };
     };
   };
diff --git a/nixos/tests/logrotate.nix b/nixos/tests/logrotate.nix
index 38da8d535275c..85923465593a9 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/logrotate.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/logrotate.nix
@@ -1,26 +1,33 @@
 # Test logrotate service works and is enabled by default
 
-import ./make-test-python.nix ({ pkgs, ...} : rec {
+import ./make-test-python.nix ({ pkgs, ... }: rec {
   name = "logrotate";
   meta = with pkgs.lib.maintainers; {
     maintainers = [ martinetd ];
   };
 
-  # default machine
-  machine = { ... }: {
+  nodes = {
+    defaultMachine = { ... }: { };
+    machine = { config, ... }: {
+      services.logrotate.paths = {
+        # using mail somewhere should add --mail to logrotate invokation
+        sendmail = {
+          extraConfig = "mail user@domain.tld";
+        };
+      };
+    };
   };
 
   testScript =
     ''
       with subtest("whether logrotate works"):
-          machine.succeed(
-              # we must rotate once first to create logrotate stamp
-              "systemctl start logrotate.service")
+          # we must rotate once first to create logrotate stamp
+          defaultMachine.succeed("systemctl start logrotate.service")
           # we need to wait for console text once here to
           # clear console buffer up to this point for next wait
-          machine.wait_for_console_text('logrotate.service: Deactivated successfully')
+          defaultMachine.wait_for_console_text('logrotate.service: Deactivated successfully')
 
-          machine.succeed(
+          defaultMachine.succeed(
               # wtmp is present in default config.
               "rm -f /var/log/wtmp*",
               # we need to give it at least 1MB
@@ -28,10 +35,14 @@ import ./make-test-python.nix ({ pkgs, ...} : rec {
 
               # move into the future and check rotation.
               "date -s 'now + 1 month + 1 day'")
-          machine.wait_for_console_text('logrotate.service: Deactivated successfully')
-          machine.succeed(
+          defaultMachine.wait_for_console_text('logrotate.service: Deactivated successfully')
+          defaultMachine.succeed(
               # check rotate worked
               "[ -e /var/log/wtmp.1 ]",
           )
+      with subtest("default config does not have mail"):
+          defaultMachine.fail("systemctl cat logrotate.service | grep -- --mail")
+      with subtest("using mails adds mail option"):
+          machine.succeed("systemctl cat logrotate.service | grep -- --mail")
     '';
 })
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/system/logrotate/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/system/logrotate/default.nix
index f0ce08383359c..4c9536cd7cf40 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/system/logrotate/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/system/logrotate/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 { lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, gzip, popt, autoreconfHook
-, mailutils ? null
 , aclSupport ? true, acl
 , nixosTests
 }:
@@ -19,8 +18,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   configureFlags = [
     "--with-compress-command=${gzip}/bin/gzip"
     "--with-uncompress-command=${gzip}/bin/gunzip"
-  ] ++ lib.optionals (mailutils != null) [
-    "--with-default-mail-command=${mailutils}/bin/mail"
   ];
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook ];