diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/default.nix
index 332cf7aea9ec..bddf56345a9c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/default.nix
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@
   pebble,
   psutil,
   pytestCheckHook,
+  testers,
+  cvise,
 }:
 
 buildPythonApplication rec {
@@ -78,6 +80,16 @@ buildPythonApplication rec {
     "test_simple_reduction"
   ];
 
+  passthru = {
+    tests = {
+      # basic syntax check
+      help-output = testers.testVersion {
+        package = cvise;
+        command = "cvise --version";
+      };
+    };
+  };
+
   meta = with lib; {
     homepage = "https://github.com/marxin/cvise";
     description = "Super-parallel Python port of C-Reduce";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/unifdef.patch b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/unifdef.patch
index d15ca6dce0bd..e584730d6146 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/unifdef.patch
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/cvise/unifdef.patch
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
---- a/cvise.py
-+++ b/cvise.py
-@@ -93,4 +93,5 @@ def find_external_programs():
+--- a/cvise/utils/externalprograms.py
++++ b/cvise/utils/externalprograms.py
+@@ -43,5 +43,6 @@ def find_external_programs():
+ 
      # Special case for clang-format
      programs['clang-format'] = '@CLANG_FORMAT_PATH@'
 +    programs['unifdef'] = '@UNIFDEF@'