diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
index 114b10572aea..4792f0bb5389 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
@@ -453,7 +453,7 @@ xdvi = stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
   postInstall = ''
     substituteInPlace "$out/bin/xdvi" \
-      --replace "exec xdvi-xaw" "exec '$out/bin/xdvi-xaw'"
+      --replace-fail "exec xdvi-xaw" "exec '$out/bin/xdvi-xaw'"
   '';
   # TODO: it's suspicious that mktexpk generates fonts into ~/.texlive2014
 };
@@ -489,8 +489,8 @@ xindy = stdenv.mkDerivation {
   # hardcode clisp location
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace xindy-*/user-commands/xindy.in \
-      --replace "our \$clisp = ( \$is_windows ? 'clisp.exe' : 'clisp' ) ;" \
-                "our \$clisp = '$(type -P clisp)';"
+      --replace-fail "our \$clisp = ( \$is_windows ? 'clisp.exe' : 'clisp' ) ;" \
+                     "our \$clisp = '$(type -P clisp)';"
   '';
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/build-tex-env.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/build-tex-env.nix
index 85be581a3066..39c2ab8922fc 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/build-tex-env.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/build-tex-env.nix
@@ -378,7 +378,7 @@ let
     if [[ -e "$out/bin/mtxrun" ]]; then
       mv "$out"/bin/mtxrun.lua{,.orig}
       substitute "$TEXMFDIST"/scripts/context/lua/mtxrun.lua "$out"/bin/mtxrun.lua \
-        --replace 'randomseed(math.initialseed)' "randomseed($SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)"
+        --replace-fail 'randomseed(math.initialseed)' "randomseed($SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)"
     fi
   '' +
   # texlive postactions (see TeXLive::TLUtils::_do_postaction_script)
@@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ let
     # note that calling faketime and fmtutil is fragile (faketime uses LD_PRELOAD, fmtutil calls /bin/sh, causing potential glibc issues on non-NixOS)
     # so we patch fmtutil to use faketime, rather than calling faketime fmtutil
     substitute "$TEXMFDIST"/scripts/texlive/fmtutil.pl fmtutil \
-      --replace 'my $cmdline = "$eng -ini ' 'my $cmdline = "faketime -f '"'"'\@1980-01-01 00:00:00 x0.001'"'"' $eng -ini '
+      --replace-fail 'my $cmdline = "$eng -ini ' 'my $cmdline = "faketime -f '"'"'\@1980-01-01 00:00:00 x0.001'"'"' $eng -ini '
     FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 TZ= perl fmtutil --sys --all | grep '^fmtutil' # too verbose
 
     # Disable unavailable map files
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix
index 8ed3bb09c12f..453acba6ef94 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ in lib.recursiveUpdate orig rec {
   #### other script fixes
   # wrong $0 expectations
   bibcop.postFixup = ''
-    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/bibcop --replace "basename(\$0) eq 'bibcop.pl'" "basename(\$0) eq 'bibcop'"
+    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/bibcop --replace-fail "basename(\$0) eq 'bibcop.pl'" "basename(\$0) eq 'bibcop'"
   '';
 
   # misc tab and python3 fixes
@@ -305,12 +305,12 @@ in lib.recursiveUpdate orig rec {
   # add runtime dependencies to PATH
   epspdf.postFixup = ''
     sed -i '2ios.setenv("PATH","${lib.makeBinPath epspdf.extraBuildInputs}" .. (os.getenv("PATH") and ":" .. os.getenv("PATH") or ""))' "$out"/bin/epspdf
-    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/epspdftk --replace '[info script]' "\"$scriptsFolder/epspdftk.tcl\""
+    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/epspdftk --replace-fail '[info script]' "\"$scriptsFolder/epspdftk.tcl\""
   '';
 
   # find files in script directory, not in binary directory
   latexindent.postFixup = ''
-    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/latexindent --replace 'use FindBin;' "BEGIN { \$0 = '$scriptsFolder' . '/latexindent.pl'; }; use FindBin;"
+    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/latexindent --replace-fail 'use FindBin;' "BEGIN { \$0 = '$scriptsFolder' . '/latexindent.pl'; }; use FindBin;"
   '';
 
   # flag lua dependency
@@ -330,14 +330,14 @@ in lib.recursiveUpdate orig rec {
 
   # patch interpreter
   texosquery.postFixup = ''
-    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/* --replace java "$interpJava"
+    substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/* --replace-fail java "$interpJava"
   '';
 
   # hardcode revision numbers (since texlive.infra, tlshell are not in either system or user texlive.tlpdb)
   tlshell.postFixup = ''
     substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/tlshell \
-      --replace '[dict get $::pkgs texlive.infra localrev]' '${toString orig."texlive.infra".revision}' \
-      --replace '[dict get $::pkgs tlshell localrev]' '${toString orig.tlshell.revision}'
+      --replace-fail '[dict get $::pkgs texlive.infra localrev]' '${toString orig."texlive.infra".revision}' \
+      --replace-fail '[dict get $::pkgs tlshell localrev]' '${toString orig.tlshell.revision}'
   '';
 
   #### dependency changes
@@ -389,9 +389,9 @@ in lib.recursiveUpdate orig rec {
       TEXMFCNF="${tl.kpathsea.tex}"/web2c TEXMF="$scriptsFolder/../.." \
         texlua "$out"/bin/texdoc --print-completion zsh > "$TMPDIR"/_texdoc
       substituteInPlace "$TMPDIR"/_texdoc \
-        --replace 'compdef __texdoc texdoc' '#compdef texdoc' \
-        --replace '$(kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFROOT)/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb' '$(kpsewhich Data.tlpdb.lua)' \
-        --replace '/^name[^.]*$/ {print $2}' '/^  \["[^"]*"\] = {$/ { print substr($1,3,length($1)-4) }'
+        --replace-fail 'compdef __texdoc texdoc' '#compdef texdoc' \
+        --replace-fail '$(kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFROOT)/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb' '$(kpsewhich Data.tlpdb.lua)' \
+        --replace-fail '/^name[^.]*$/ {print $2}' '/^  \["[^"]*"\] = {$/ { print substr($1,3,length($1)-4) }'
       echo '__texdoc' >> "$TMPDIR"/_texdoc
       installShellCompletion --zsh "$TMPDIR"/_texdoc
     '';
@@ -410,7 +410,7 @@ in lib.recursiveUpdate orig rec {
     # make tlmgr believe it can use kpsewhich to evaluate TEXMFROOT
     postFixup = ''
       substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/tlmgr \
-        --replace 'if (-r "$bindir/$kpsewhichname")' 'if (1)'
+        --replace-fail 'if (-r "$bindir/$kpsewhichname")' 'if (1)'
       sed -i '2i$ENV{PATH}='"'"'${lib.makeBinPath [ gnupg ]}'"'"' . ($ENV{PATH} ? ":$ENV{PATH}" : '"'''"');' "$out"/bin/tlmgr
       sed -i '2iPATH="${lib.makeBinPath [ coreutils gnused tl.kpathsea ]}''${PATH:+:$PATH}"' "$out"/bin/mktexlsr
     '';