diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
index 661b8597efea..b56f9ce2dbf4 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
@@ -53,17 +53,18 @@ autoPatchelf() {
         esac
     done
 
-    if [ "${autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps[*]}" == "1" ]; then
+    local ignoreMissingDepsArray=($autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps)
+    if [ "$autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps" == "1" ]; then
         echo "autoPatchelf: WARNING: setting 'autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps" \
              "= true;' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release." \
              "Use 'autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps = [ \"*\" ];' instead." >&2
-        autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps=( "*" )
+        ignoreMissingDepsArray=( "*" )
     fi
 
     local runtimeDependenciesArray=($runtimeDependencies)
     @pythonInterpreter@ @autoPatchelfScript@                            \
         ${norecurse:+--no-recurse}                                      \
-        --ignore-missing "${autoPatchelfIgnoreMissingDeps[@]}"          \
+        --ignore-missing "${ignoreMissingDepsArray[@]}"                 \
         --paths "$@"                                                    \
         --libs "${autoPatchelfLibs[@]}"                                 \
                "${extraAutoPatchelfLibs[@]}"                            \