diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix
index d5ae64c9c5ff..bb95c1807ab9 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix
@@ -342,7 +342,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
   inherit dynamicLinker expand-response-params;
 
-  expandResponseParams = expand-response-params; # for substitution in utils.sh
+  # for substitution in utils.sh
+  expandResponseParams = "${expand-response-params}/bin/expand-response-params";
 
   crossAttrs = {
     shell = shell.crossDrv + shell.crossDrv.shellPath;
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/utils.sh b/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/utils.sh
index 7e9979f10ae8..c84a094e26b0 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/utils.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/utils.sh
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ expandResponseParams() {
         if [[ "$arg" == @* ]]; then
             # phase separation makes this look useless
             # shellcheck disable=SC2157
-            if [ -n "@expandResponseParams@" ]; then
+            if [ -x "@expandResponseParams@" ]; then
                 # params is used by caller
                 #shellcheck disable=SC2034
                 readarray -d '' params < <("@expandResponseParams@" "$@")
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/expand-response-params/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/expand-response-params/default.nix
index 7afbb727fc3e..2a4bee74197b 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/expand-response-params/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/expand-response-params/default.nix
@@ -3,11 +3,17 @@
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = "expand-response-params";
   src = ./expand-response-params.c;
-  buildCommand = ''
-    # Work around "stdenv-darwin-boot-2 is not allowed to refer to path /nix/store/...-expand-response-params.c"
+  # Work around "stdenv-darwin-boot-2 is not allowed to refer to path
+  # /nix/store/...-expand-response-params.c"
+  unpackPhase = ''
     cp "$src" expand-response-params.c
-    "$CC" -std=c99 -O3 -o "$out" expand-response-params.c
-    strip -S $out
-    ${stdenv.lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isLinux "patchelf --shrink-rpath $out"}
+    src=$PWD
+  '';
+  buildPhase = ''
+    "$CC" -std=c99 -O3 -o "expand-response-params" expand-response-params.c
+  '';
+  installPhase = ''
+    mkdir -p $prefix/bin
+    mv expand-response-params $prefix/bin/
   '';
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/stdenv/linux/default.nix b/pkgs/stdenv/linux/default.nix
index 48deb9a5c02c..fab1985b9765 100644
--- a/pkgs/stdenv/linux/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/stdenv/linux/default.nix
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ in
         # More complicated cases
         ++ [
             glibc.out glibc.dev glibc.bin/*propagated from .dev*/ linuxHeaders
-            gcc gcc.cc gcc.cc.lib gcc.expandResponseParams
+            gcc gcc.cc gcc.cc.lib gcc.expand-response-params
           ]
           ++ lib.optionals (system == "aarch64-linux")
             [ prevStage.updateAutotoolsGnuConfigScriptsHook prevStage.gnu-config ];