diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
index b56f9ce2dbf4..7f5ff146e30b 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ autoPatchelf() {
         esac
     done
 
-    local ignoreMissingDepsArray=($autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps)
+    readarray -td' ' ignoreMissingDepsArray < <(echo -n "$autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps")
     if [ "$autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps" == "1" ]; then
         echo "autoPatchelf: WARNING: setting 'autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps" \
              "= true;' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release." \