diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/logging/syslog-ng.nix b/nixos/modules/services/logging/syslog-ng.nix
index 8466ff4630a..985b93a5374 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/logging/syslog-ng.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/logging/syslog-ng.nix
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ in {
         StandardOutput = "null";
         Restart = "on-failure";
         ExecStart = "${cfg.package}/sbin/syslog-ng ${concatStringsSep " " syslogngOptions}";
-        ExecReload = "${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/kill -HUP ${pidFile}";
+        ExecReload = "${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/kill -HUP `${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/cat ${pidFile}`";
       };
     };
   };