diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/awesome.nix b/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/awesome.nix
index eb97449c6bd9..71eb02ec5954 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/awesome.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/x11/window-managers/awesome.nix
@@ -6,7 +6,11 @@ let
 
   cfg = config.services.xserver.windowManager.awesome;
   awesome = cfg.package;
-  inherit (pkgs.luaPackages) getLuaPath getLuaCPath;
+  getLuaPath = lib : dir : "${lib}/${dir}/lua/${pkgs.luaPackages.lua.luaversion}";
+  makeSearchPath = lib.concatMapStrings (path:
+    " --search " + (getLuaPath path "share") +
+    " --search " + (getLuaPath path "lib")
+  );
 in
 
 {
@@ -46,10 +50,7 @@ in
       { name = "awesome";
         start =
           ''
-            export LUA_CPATH="${lib.concatStringsSep ";" (map getLuaCPath cfg.luaModules)}"
-            export LUA_PATH="${lib.concatStringsSep ";" (map getLuaPath cfg.luaModules)}"
-
-            ${awesome}/bin/awesome &
+            ${awesome}/bin/awesome ${makeSearchPath cfg.luaModules} &
             waitPID=$!
           '';
       };
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/awesome/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/awesome/default.nix
index 4043c05e3d6d..ca596cdfddc1 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/awesome/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/awesome/default.nix
@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@ with luaPackages; stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   postInstall = ''
     wrapProgram $out/bin/awesome \
       --set GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE "$GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE" \
-      --prefix LUA_CPATH ";" '${lgi}/lib/lua/${lua.luaversion}/?.so' \
-      --prefix LUA_PATH ";" '${lgi}/share/lua/${lua.luaversion}/?.lua' \
+      --add-flags '--search ${lgi}/lib/lua/${lua.luaversion}' \
+      --add-flags '--search ${lgi}/share/lua/${lua.luaversion}' \
       --prefix GI_TYPELIB_PATH : "$GI_TYPELIB_PATH" \
       --prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : "$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" \
       --prefix PATH : "${stdenv.lib.makeBinPath [ compton unclutter procps iproute coreutils curl alsaUtils findutils xterm ]}"