diff --git a/world/file/Makefile b/world/file/Makefile
index 5a7952b..6691195 100644
--- a/world/file/Makefile
+++ b/world/file/Makefile
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
 #  Makefile - hhl - /usr/src/world/file
 #  Copyright 2021 Nathan Fisher <nfisher.sr@gmail.com>
-#  
+#
 distname     = file
 distext      = gz
+ifeq ($(arch), armv7l)
+ifeq ($(shell uname -m), armv7l)
+patches     += file-compile_magic.patch
+endif
+endif
 include world.mk
 
 config_opts += --host=$(tgt)
diff --git a/world/file/file-compile_magic.patch b/world/file/file-compile_magic.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e161b82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/world/file/file-compile_magic.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+Description:             During the build, file uses either the system
+                         installed file executable (if cross compiling)
+			 or the newly compiled file executable to generate
+			 magic. Unfortunately this fails if doing a native
+			 build on armv7l with the sysroot compiler, so
+			 fall back to system executable.
+diff --color -Naur file-5.39.orig/magic/Makefile.in file-5.39/magic/Makefile.in
+--- file-5.39.orig/magic/Makefile.in	2020-06-14 20:03:12.000000000 -0400
++++ file-5.39/magic/Makefile.in	2021-03-06 08:21:13.701131046 -0500
+@@ -841,7 +841,7 @@
+ 		exit 1; \
+ 	    fi; \
+ 	  fi)
+-	$(FILE_COMPILE) -C -m magic
++	file -C -m magic
+ 	@rm -fr magic
+ 
+ # Tell versions [3.59,3.63) of GNU make to not export all variables.