diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/mftrace/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/mftrace/default.nix
index 14e3c2fe7ebe..9f061630e224 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/mftrace/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/mftrace/default.nix
@@ -44,9 +44,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: rec {
 
   # experimental texlive.combine support
   # (note that only the bin/ folder will be combined into texlive)
-  passthru.tlType = "bin";
-  passthru.pkgs = [ finalAttrs.finalPackage ] ++
-    (with texlive; kpathsea.pkgs ++ t1utils.pkgs ++ metafont.pkgs);
+  passthru = {
+    tlType = "bin";
+    tlDeps = with texlive; [ kpathsea t1utils metafont ];
+    pkgs = [ finalAttrs.finalPackage ];
+  };
 
   meta = with lib; {
     description = "Scalable PostScript Fonts for MetaFont";