diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
index 441f230869b2..b35c3c876253 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/patch-shebangs.sh
@@ -102,10 +102,12 @@ 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).
-        if [ "$output" != out ] && [ "$output" = "${!outputDev}" ]; then
+        elif [ "$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 8af369b1d17d..81c1725f1d19 100644
--- a/pkgs/stdenv/generic/setup.sh
+++ b/pkgs/stdenv/generic/setup.sh
@@ -257,17 +257,9 @@ 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