diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/electronics/kicad/base.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/electronics/kicad/base.nix
index 2b98f1840bab..1e1c3ca3bb86 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/electronics/kicad/base.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/electronics/kicad/base.nix
@@ -88,10 +88,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # nix removes .git, so its approximated here
   postPatch = lib.optionalString (!stable || testing) ''
     substituteInPlace cmake/KiCadVersion.cmake \
-      --replace "unknown" "${builtins.substring 0 10 src.rev}"
+      --replace-fail "unknown" "${builtins.substring 0 10 src.rev}"
 
     substituteInPlace cmake/CreateGitVersionHeader.cmake \
-      --replace "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "${src.rev}"
+      --replace-fail "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000" "${src.rev}"
   '';
 
   preConfigure = optionalString debug ''