diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
index b35c3c876253..441f230869b2 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
@@ -102,12 +102,10 @@ patchShebangs() {
 patchShebangsAuto () {
     if [ -z "$dontPatchShebangs" -a -e "$prefix" ]; then
 
-        if [ -z "${strictDeps-}"]; then
-            patchShebangs --build "$prefix"
         # Dev output will end up being run on the build platform. An
         # example case of this is sdl2-config. Otherwise, we can just
         # use the runtime path (--host).
-        elif [ "$output" != out ] && [ "$output" = "${!outputDev}" ]; then
+        if [ "$output" != out ] && [ "$output" = "${!outputDev}" ]; then
             patchShebangs --build "$prefix"
         else
             patchShebangs --host "$prefix"
diff --git a/pkgs/stdenv/generic/setup.sh b/pkgs/stdenv/generic/setup.sh
index 336e229c6a32..be96d018612c 100644
--- a/pkgs/stdenv/generic/setup.sh
+++ b/pkgs/stdenv/generic/setup.sh
@@ -257,9 +257,17 @@ shopt -s nullglob
 
 # Set up the initial path.
 PATH=
+HOST_PATH=
 for i in $initialPath; do
     if [ "$i" = / ]; then i=; fi
     addToSearchPath PATH "$i/bin"
+
+    # For backward compatibility, we add initial path to HOST_PATH so
+    # it can be used in auto patch-shebangs. Unfortunately this will
+    # not work with cross compilation.
+    if [ -z "${strictDeps-}" ]; then
+        addToSearchPath HOST_PATH "$i/bin"
+    fi
 done
 
 if (( "${NIX_DEBUG:-0}" >= 1 )); then