diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/st/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/st/default.nix
index 3562a4f9b16..5ed8b81eabb 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/st/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/st/default.nix
@@ -3,8 +3,7 @@
 
 with stdenv.lib;
 
-let patches' = if patches == null then [] else patches;
-in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "st-0.8.1";
 
   src = fetchurl {
@@ -12,7 +11,7 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "09k94v3n20gg32xy7y68p96x9dq5msl80gknf9gbvlyjp3i0zyy4";
   };
 
-  patches = patches';
+  inherit patches;
 
   configFile = optionalString (conf!=null) (writeText "config.def.h" conf);
   preBuild = optionalString (conf!=null) "cp ${configFile} config.def.h";
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 40b5efcf236..0ab3d12ec2f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -18262,7 +18262,7 @@ with pkgs;
 
   st = callPackage ../applications/misc/st {
     conf = config.st.conf or null;
-    patches = config.st.patches or null;
+    patches = config.st.patches or [];
     extraLibs = config.st.extraLibs or [];
   };