diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/bintools-wrapper/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/bintools-wrapper/default.nix
index 5dddbde9eec..648b8b4ffa9 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/bintools-wrapper/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/bintools-wrapper/default.nix
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ let
     else null;
 
   expand-response-params =
-    if buildPackages.stdenv.cc or null != null && buildPackages.stdenv.cc != "/dev/null"
+    if buildPackages ? stdenv && buildPackages.stdenv.hasCC && buildPackages.stdenv.cc != "/dev/null"
     then import ../expand-response-params { inherit (buildPackages) stdenv; }
     else "";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix
index 9851602179c..a4ece85e619 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/cc-wrapper/default.nix
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ let
   infixSalt = replaceStrings ["-" "."] ["_" "_"] targetPlatform.config;
 
   expand-response-params =
-    if buildPackages.stdenv.cc or null != null && buildPackages.stdenv.cc != "/dev/null"
+    if buildPackages.stdenv.hasCC && buildPackages.stdenv.cc != "/dev/null"
     then import ../expand-response-params { inherit (buildPackages) stdenv; }
     else "";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix
index 2ecc5cbb2ef..5ad19ce9f3d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ let
         substituteInPlace "$out"/lib/perl5/*/*/Config_heavy.pl \
           --replace "${libcInc}" /no-such-path \
           --replace "${
-              if stdenv.cc.cc or null != null then stdenv.cc.cc else "/no-such-path"
+              if stdenv.hasCC then stdenv.cc.cc else "/no-such-path"
             }" /no-such-path \
           --replace "${stdenv.cc}" /no-such-path \
           --replace "$man" /no-such-path
diff --git a/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix b/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix
index 2f43db9cfc2..befeb450997 100644
--- a/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/stdenv/generic/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
 let lib = import ../../../lib; in lib.makeOverridable (
 
-{ name ? "stdenv", preHook ? "", initialPath, cc, shell
+{ name ? "stdenv", preHook ? "", initialPath
+
+, # If we don't have a C compiler, we might either have `cc = null` or `cc =
+  # throw ...`, but if we do have a C compiler we should definiely have `cc !=
+  # null`.
+  #
+  # TODO(@Ericson2314): Add assert without creating infinite recursion
+  hasCC ? cc != null, cc
+
+, shell
 , allowedRequisites ? null, extraAttrs ? {}, overrides ? (self: super: {}), config
 
 , # The `fetchurl' to use for downloading curl and its dependencies
@@ -57,7 +66,8 @@ let
       ../../build-support/setup-hooks/move-sbin.sh
       ../../build-support/setup-hooks/move-lib64.sh
       ../../build-support/setup-hooks/set-source-date-epoch-to-latest.sh
-      cc
+      # TODO use lib.optional instead
+      (if hasCC then cc else null)
     ];
 
   defaultBuildInputs = extraBuildInputs;
@@ -145,7 +155,7 @@ let
 
       inherit overrides;
 
-      inherit cc;
+      inherit cc hasCC;
     }
 
     # Propagate any extra attributes.  For instance, we use this to