diff --git a/bootstrap.sh b/bootstrap.sh
index f007c713bf..2547f5dc88 100755
--- a/bootstrap.sh
+++ b/bootstrap.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #! /bin/sh -e
+rm -f aclocal.m4
 mkdir -p config
 libtoolize --copy
 aclocal
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 662a65c822..acf5ac7ce3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ AC_ARG_WITH(sqlite, AC_HELP_STRING([--with-sqlite=PATH],
   [prefix of SQLite]),
   sqlite=$withval, sqlite=)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_SQLITE, test -n "$sqlite")
-SQLITE_VERSION=3.6.23
+SQLITE_VERSION=3.7.0
 AC_SUBST(SQLITE_VERSION)
 if test -z "$sqlite"; then
   sqlite_lib='${top_builddir}/externals/sqlite-$(SQLITE_VERSION)/libsqlite3.la'
diff --git a/src/libstore/local-store.cc b/src/libstore/local-store.cc
index 6f3d9efa86..bddcbad12b 100644
--- a/src/libstore/local-store.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/local-store.cc
@@ -298,10 +298,20 @@ void LocalStore::openDB(bool create)
     if (sqlite3_exec(db, ("pragma synchronous = " + syncMode + ";").c_str(), 0, 0, 0) != SQLITE_OK)
         throw SQLiteError(db, "setting synchronous mode");
 
-    /* Use `truncate' journal mode, which should be a bit faster. */
-    if (sqlite3_exec(db, "pragma main.journal_mode = truncate;", 0, 0, 0) != SQLITE_OK)
+    /* Set the SQLite journal mode.  The default is write-ahead
+       logging since it's the fastest and supports more concurrency.
+       The downside is that it doesn't work over NFS, so allow
+       truncate mode alternatively. */
+    string mode = queryBoolSetting("use-sqlite-wal", true) ? "wal" : "truncate";
+    if (sqlite3_exec(db, ("pragma main.journal_mode = " + mode + ";").c_str(), 0, 0, 0) != SQLITE_OK)
         throw SQLiteError(db, "setting journal mode");
 
+    /* Increase the auto-checkpoint interval to 8192 pages.  This
+       seems enough to ensure that instantiating the NixOS system
+       derivation is done in a single fsync(). */
+    if (sqlite3_exec(db, "pragma wal_autocheckpoint = 8192;", 0, 0, 0) != SQLITE_OK)
+        throw SQLiteError(db, "setting autocheckpoint interval");
+    
     /* Initialise the database schema, if necessary. */
     if (create) {
 #include "schema.sql.hh"