diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/far2l/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/far2l/default.nix
index 7c6573630a15..572ec3dda15e 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/far2l/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/far2l/default.nix
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     wrapProgram $out/bin/far2l --argv0 $out/bin/far2l
   '';
 
-  stripDebugList = "bin share";
+  stripDebugList = [ "bin" "share" ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ldb/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/ldb/default.nix
index 7ee869b53c35..a0cb8a7762b5 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/ldb/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ldb/default.nix
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     "--without-ldb-lmdb"
   ];
 
-  stripDebugList = "bin lib modules";
+  stripDebugList = [ "bin" "lib" "modules" ];
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "A LDAP-like embedded database";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/misc/avr/libc/default.nix b/pkgs/development/misc/avr/libc/default.nix
index 48ea088a73c9..84e9c0751342 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/misc/avr/libc/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/misc/avr/libc/default.nix
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ automake autoconf ];
 
   # Make sure we don't strip the libraries in lib/gcc/avr.
-  stripDebugList = "bin";
+  stripDebugList = [ "bin" ];
   dontPatchELF = true;
 
   passthru = {
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/syslinux/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/syslinux/default.nix
index ed901b21ac11..02d19c8a2029 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/syslinux/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/syslinux/default.nix
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   enableParallelBuilding = false; # Fails very rarely with 'No rule to make target: ...'
   hardeningDisable = [ "pic" "stackprotector" "fortify" ];
 
-  stripDebugList = "bin sbin share/syslinux/com32";
+  stripDebugList = [ "bin" "sbin" "share/syslinux/com32" ];
 
   makeFlags = [
     "BINDIR=$(out)/bin"
diff --git a/pkgs/servers/http/apache-httpd/2.4.nix b/pkgs/servers/http/apache-httpd/2.4.nix
index 252365098ddc..658de79385a9 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/http/apache-httpd/2.4.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/http/apache-httpd/2.4.nix
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
-  stripDebugList = "lib modules bin";
+  stripDebugList = [ "lib" "modules" "bin" ];
 
   postInstall = ''
     mkdir -p $doc/share/doc/httpd