diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
index a2651c63e1d..cc6763e9ee9 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   - source: ../../../../../doc/languages-frameworks/texlive.xml
   - current html: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-language-texlive
 */
-{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, runCommand, writeText, buildEnv
+{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, fetchpatch, runCommand, writeText, buildEnv
 , callPackage, ghostscriptX, harfbuzz, poppler_min
 , makeWrapper, python, ruby, perl
 , useFixedHashes ? true
@@ -57,6 +57,21 @@ let
       collection-plaingeneric = orig.collection-plaingeneric // {
         deps = orig.collection-plaingeneric.deps // { inherit (tl) xdvi; };
       };
+
+      # TODO revert for texlive 2020
+      arara = lib.recursiveUpdate orig.arara {
+        postUnpack = let
+          arara_jar_fix = fetchpatch {
+            url = "https://github.com/TeX-Live/texlive-source/commit/dbaf12f4a47dcd62bcc96346f65493fda3fec2c8.diff";
+            sha256 = "148knr8k6sm6fpyj31kdq85yxvzvwp1prjha3f07q24kbar2l830";
+          };
+        in ''
+          if [ -f "$out"/scripts/arara/arara.sh ]; then
+            cd "$out"/scripts/
+            patch -p4 <${arara_jar_fix}
+          fi
+        '';
+      };
     }); # overrides
 
     # tl =
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixedHashes.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixedHashes.nix
index e7ea017ac16..758b24f98e0 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixedHashes.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixedHashes.nix
@@ -553,7 +553,7 @@
 "adhocfilelist-2019"="l8ayz7mqaa5lma2bvqb2brc879y0viij";
 "adhocfilelist.doc-2019"="gm20nhwq88s1cmch3pcgkqnyahb5gnri";
 "adhocfilelist.source-2019"="3qx23im0z07cnk2bd5vrskl153zxy6ff";
-"arara-4.0.6"="qk5dq5f0il52m1gp8ckd7ilqbmpkvfmj";
+"arara-4.0.6"="6jhbdl9kh0d7iaq9qrl71kqzrmvvx9ya";
 "arara.doc-4.0.6"="rvkrcair91scrk763igaj9mmi23n5j7x";
 "arara.source-4.0.6"="s7rlspqx9dqsbixbnmnaz9hh7gwkmkfi";
 "asymptote-2.49"="ka921kxzvyq3hi5frln4hh7qg1kfgch7";