diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
index a26113abea88..9a48440debec 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
@@ -62,15 +62,21 @@ patchShebangs() {
         fi
 
         if [[ "$oldPath" == *"/bin/env" ]]; then
+            if [[ $arg0 == "-S" ]]; then
+                arg0=${args%% *}
+                args=${args#* }
+                newPath="$(PATH="${!pathName}" command -v "env" || true)"
+                args="-S $(PATH="${!pathName}" command -v "$arg0" || true) $args"
+
             # Check for unsupported 'env' functionality:
-            # - options: something starting with a '-'
+            # - options: something starting with a '-' besides '-S'
             # - environment variables: foo=bar
-            if [[ $arg0 == "-"* || $arg0 == *"="* ]]; then
+            elif [[ $arg0 == "-"* || $arg0 == *"="* ]]; then
                 echo "$f: unsupported interpreter directive \"$oldInterpreterLine\" (set dontPatchShebangs=1 and handle shebang patching yourself)" >&2
                 exit 1
+            else
+                newPath="$(PATH="${!pathName}" command -v "$arg0" || true)"
             fi
-
-            newPath="$(PATH="${!pathName}" command -v "$arg0" || true)"
         else
             if [[ -z $oldPath ]]; then
                 # If no interpreter is specified linux will use /bin/sh. Set
diff --git a/pkgs/test/default.nix b/pkgs/test/default.nix
index 71d065179d17..5d154d1630b6 100644
--- a/pkgs/test/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/test/default.nix
@@ -63,8 +63,6 @@ with pkgs;
 
   overriding = callPackage ./overriding.nix { };
 
-  patch-shebangs = callPackage ./patch-shebangs {};
-
   texlive = callPackage ./texlive {};
 
   cuda = callPackage ./cuda { };
diff --git a/pkgs/test/patch-shebangs/default.nix b/pkgs/test/patch-shebangs/default.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 5c49787eee3b..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/test/patch-shebangs/default.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,70 +0,0 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, runCommand }:
-
-let
-  tests = {
-    bad-shebang = stdenv.mkDerivation {
-      name         = "bad-shebang";
-      dontUnpack = true;
-      installPhase = ''
-        mkdir -p $out/bin
-        echo "#!/bin/sh" > $out/bin/test
-        echo "echo -n hello" >> $out/bin/test
-        chmod +x $out/bin/test
-      '';
-      passthru = {
-        assertion = "grep -v '^#!/bin/sh' $out/bin/test > /dev/null";
-      };
-    };
-
-    ignores-nix-store = stdenv.mkDerivation {
-      name = "ignores-nix-store";
-      dontUnpack = true;
-      installPhase = ''
-        mkdir -p $out/bin
-        echo "#!$NIX_STORE/path/to/sh" > $out/bin/test
-        echo "echo -n hello" >> $out/bin/test
-        chmod +x $out/bin/test
-      '';
-      passthru = {
-        assertion = "grep \"^#!$NIX_STORE/path/to/sh\" $out/bin/test > /dev/null";
-      };
-    };
-  };
-in runCommand "patch-shebangs-test" {
-  passthru = { inherit (tests) bad-shebang ignores-nix-store; };
-  meta.platforms = lib.platforms.all;
-} ''
-  validate() {
-    local name=$1
-    local testout=$2
-    local assertion=$3
-
-    echo -n "... $name: " >&2
-
-    local rc=0
-    (out=$testout eval "$assertion") || rc=1
-
-    if [ "$rc" -eq 0 ]; then
-      echo "yes" >&2
-    else
-      echo "no" >&2
-    fi
-
-    return "$rc"
-  }
-
-  echo "checking whether patchShebangs works properly... ">&2
-
-  fail=
-  ${lib.concatStringsSep "\n" (lib.mapAttrsToList (_: test: ''
-    validate "${test.name}" "${test}" ${lib.escapeShellArg test.assertion} || fail=1
-  '') tests)}
-
-  if [ "$fail" ]; then
-    echo "failed"
-    exit 1
-  else
-    echo "succeeded"
-    touch $out
-  fi
-''
diff --git a/pkgs/test/stdenv/default.nix b/pkgs/test/stdenv/default.nix
index bad6eb7ba7aa..91964213bbc6 100644
--- a/pkgs/test/stdenv/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/test/stdenv/default.nix
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ in
 
 {
   # tests for hooks in `stdenv.defaultNativeBuildInputs`
-  hooks = lib.recurseIntoAttrs (import ./hooks.nix { stdenv = bootStdenv; pkgs = earlyPkgs; });
+  hooks = lib.recurseIntoAttrs (import ./hooks.nix { stdenv = bootStdenv; pkgs = earlyPkgs; inherit lib; });
 
   outputs-no-out = runCommand "outputs-no-out-assert" {
     result = testers.testBuildFailure (stdenv.mkDerivation {
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ in
 
   structuredAttrsByDefault = lib.recurseIntoAttrs {
 
-    hooks = lib.recurseIntoAttrs (import ./hooks.nix { stdenv = bootStdenvStructuredAttrsByDefault; pkgs = earlyPkgs; });
+    hooks = lib.recurseIntoAttrs (import ./hooks.nix { stdenv = bootStdenvStructuredAttrsByDefault; pkgs = earlyPkgs; inherit lib; });
 
     test-cc-wrapper-substitutions = ccWrapperSubstitutionsTest {
       name = "test-cc-wrapper-substitutions-structuredAttrsByDefault";
diff --git a/pkgs/test/stdenv/hooks.nix b/pkgs/test/stdenv/hooks.nix
index 3d72efae6c47..eb1b3f61bda6 100644
--- a/pkgs/test/stdenv/hooks.nix
+++ b/pkgs/test/stdenv/hooks.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, pkgs }:
+{ stdenv, pkgs, lib }:
 
 # ordering should match defaultNativeBuildInputs
 
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
     '';
   };
   # TODO: add multiple-outputs
-  # TODO: move patch-shebangs test from pkgs/test/patch-shebangs/default.nix to here
+  patch-shebangs = import ./patch-shebangs.nix { inherit stdenv lib pkgs; };
   prune-libtool-files =
     let
       libFoo = pkgs.writeText "libFoo" ''
diff --git a/pkgs/test/stdenv/patch-shebangs.nix b/pkgs/test/stdenv/patch-shebangs.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..fb52f38ecc91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/test/stdenv/patch-shebangs.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+{ lib, stdenv, pkgs }:
+
+# since the tests are using a early stdenv, the stdenv will have dontPatchShebangs=1, so it has to be unset
+# https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/768a982bfc9d29a6bd3beb963ed4b054451ce3d0/pkgs/stdenv/linux/default.nix#L148-L153
+
+# strictDeps has to be disabled because the shell isn't in buildInputs
+
+let
+  tests = {
+    bad-shebang = stdenv.mkDerivation {
+      name = "bad-shebang";
+      strictDeps = false;
+      dontUnpack = true;
+      installPhase = ''
+        mkdir -p $out/bin
+        echo "#!/bin/bash" > $out/bin/test
+        echo "echo -n hello" >> $out/bin/test
+        chmod +x $out/bin/test
+        dontPatchShebangs=
+      '';
+      passthru = {
+        assertion = "grep '^#!${stdenv.shell}' $out/bin/test > /dev/null";
+      };
+    };
+
+    ignores-nix-store = stdenv.mkDerivation {
+      name = "ignores-nix-store";
+      strictDeps = false;
+      dontUnpack = true;
+      installPhase = ''
+        mkdir -p $out/bin
+        echo "#!$NIX_STORE/path/to/bash" > $out/bin/test
+        echo "echo -n hello" >> $out/bin/test
+        chmod +x $out/bin/test
+        dontPatchShebangs=
+      '';
+      passthru = {
+        assertion = "grep \"^#!$NIX_STORE/path/to/bash\" $out/bin/test > /dev/null";
+      };
+    };
+
+    split-string = stdenv.mkDerivation {
+      name = "split-string";
+      strictDeps = false;
+      dontUnpack = true;
+      installPhase = ''
+        mkdir -p $out/bin
+        echo "#!/usr/bin/env -S bash --posix" > $out/bin/test
+        echo "echo -n hello" >> $out/bin/test
+        chmod +x $out/bin/test
+        dontPatchShebangs=
+      '';
+      passthru = {
+        assertion = "grep -v '^#!${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/env -S ${stdenv.shell} --posix' $out/bin/test > /dev/null";
+      };
+    };
+
+  };
+in
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "test-patch-shebangs";
+  passthru = { inherit (tests) bad-shebang ignores-nix-store split-string; };
+  buildCommand = ''
+    validate() {
+      local name=$1
+      local testout=$2
+      local assertion=$3
+
+      echo -n "... $name: " >&2
+
+      local rc=0
+      (out=$testout eval "$assertion") || rc=1
+
+      if [ "$rc" -eq 0 ]; then
+        echo "yes" >&2
+      else
+        echo "no" >&2
+      fi
+
+      return "$rc"
+    }
+
+    echo "checking whether patchShebangs works properly... ">&2
+
+    fail=
+    ${lib.concatStringsSep "\n" (lib.mapAttrsToList (_: test: ''
+      validate "${test.name}" "${test}" ${lib.escapeShellArg test.assertion} || fail=1
+    '') tests)}
+
+    if [ "$fail" ]; then
+      echo "failed"
+      exit 1
+    else
+      echo "succeeded"
+      touch $out
+    fi
+  '';
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/release.nix b/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
index 374a308ac141..c22ea7f503f4 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ let
               jobs.tests.cc-wrapper-libcxx.x86_64-darwin
               jobs.tests.stdenv-inputs.x86_64-darwin
               jobs.tests.macOSSierraShared.x86_64-darwin
-              jobs.tests.patch-shebangs.x86_64-darwin
+              jobs.tests.stdenv.hooks.patch-shebangs.x86_64-darwin
               */
             ];
         } else null;
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ let
               jobs.tests.cc-multilib-gcc.x86_64-linux
               jobs.tests.cc-multilib-clang.x86_64-linux
               jobs.tests.stdenv-inputs.x86_64-linux
-              jobs.tests.patch-shebangs.x86_64-linux
+              jobs.tests.stdenv.hooks.patch-shebangs.x86_64-linux
               */
             ]
             # FIXME: reintroduce aarch64-darwin after this builds again
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ let
               jobs.tests.cc-wrapper-libcxx-6.x86_64-darwin
               jobs.tests.stdenv-inputs.x86_64-darwin
               jobs.tests.macOSSierraShared.x86_64-darwin
-              jobs.tests.patch-shebangs.x86_64-darwin
+              jobs.tests.stdenv.hooks.patch-shebangs.x86_64-darwin
               */
             ];
         };