diff --git a/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix b/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix
index e3ddf9e3c5fa..cc079cdc5856 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix
@@ -149,6 +149,12 @@ in
 
     system.build.binsh = pkgs.bashInteractive;
 
+    # Set session variables in the shell as well. This is usually
+    # unnecessary, but it allows changes to session variables to take
+    # effect without restarting the session (e.g. by opening a new
+    # terminal instead of logging out of X11).
+    environment.variables = config.environment.sessionVariables;
+
     environment.etc."shells".text =
       ''
         ${concatStringsSep "\n" cfg.shells}
diff --git a/nixos/tests/misc.nix b/nixos/tests/misc.nix
index e33581b4d2d4..8caef146ec87 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/misc.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/misc.nix
@@ -98,6 +98,10 @@ import ./make-test.nix {
           $machine->succeed("touch /tmp2/x");
           $machine->succeed("grep '/tmp2 tmpfs' /proc/mounts");
       };
+
+      subtest "shell-vars", sub {
+          $machine->succeed('[ -n "$NIX_PATH" ]');
+      };
     '';
 
 }