diff --git a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/spectrwm/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/spectrwm/default.nix
index be2c5bc3d6e..11ef2979afe 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/window-managers/spectrwm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/window-managers/spectrwm/default.nix
@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     xcbutilwm
   ];
 
-  sourceRoot = let
+  prePatch = let
     subdir = if stdenv.isDarwin then "osx" else "linux";
-  in "source/${subdir}";
+  in "cd ${subdir}";
 
   makeFlags = [ "PREFIX=${placeholder "out"}" ];