diff --git a/pkgs/tools/text/patchutils/generic.nix b/pkgs/tools/text/patchutils/generic.nix
index cd2882fc3849..da112a427ba3 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/text/patchutils/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/text/patchutils/generic.nix
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # tests fail when building in parallel
   enableParallelBuilding = false;
 
+  preConfigure = ''
+    export PERL=${perl.interpreter}
+  '';
+
   postInstall = ''
     for bin in $out/bin/{splitdiff,rediff,editdiff,dehtmldiff}; do
       wrapProgram "$bin" \
@@ -44,6 +48,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       -exec sed -i '{}' -e 's|/bin/echo|echo|g' \;
   '';
 
+  strictDeps = true;
+
   meta = {
     description = "Tools to manipulate patch files";
     homepage = "http://cyberelk.net/tim/software/patchutils";