diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/builder.sh b/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/builder.sh
index c1d35465d0b..037b91a4fac 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/builder.sh
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/builder.sh
@@ -1,31 +1,30 @@
-buildinputs="$patch"
 . $stdenv/setup
 
-tar xvfz $src
-cd perl-*
-
-# Perl's Configure messes with PATH.  We can't have that, so we patch it.
-# Yeah, this is an ugly hack.
-if test "$NIX_ENFORCE_PURITY" = "1" -a -n "$NIX_STORE"; then
-    cat Configure | \
-        grep -v '^paths=' | \
-        grep -v '^locincpth=' | \
-        grep -v '^xlibpth=' | \
-        grep -v '^glibpth=' | \
-        grep -v '^loclibpth=' | \
-        grep -v '^locincpth=' | \
-        cat > Configure.tmp
-    mv Configure.tmp Configure
-    chmod +x Configure
-fi
-
-patch -p1 < $srcPatch
+postUnpack=postUnpack
+postUnpack() {
+    # Perl's Configure messes with PATH.  We can't have that, so we
+    # patch it.  Yeah, this is an ugly hack.
+    if test "$NIX_ENFORCE_PURITY" = "1" -a -n "$NIX_STORE"; then
+        cat Configure | \
+            grep -v '^paths=' | \
+            grep -v '^locincpth=' | \
+            grep -v '^xlibpth=' | \
+            grep -v '^glibpth=' | \
+            grep -v '^loclibpth=' | \
+            grep -v '^locincpth=' | \
+            cat > Configure.tmp
+        mv Configure.tmp Configure
+        chmod +x Configure
+    fi
+}
 
 if test "$NIX_ENFORCE_PURITY" = "1" -a -n "$NIX_STORE"; then
     GLIBC=$(cat $NIX_GCC/nix-support/orig-glibc)
     extraflags="-Dlocincpth=$GLIBC/include -Dloclibpth=$GLIBC/lib"
 fi
 
-./Configure -de -Dcc=gcc -Dprefix=$out -Uinstallusrbinperl $extraflags
-make
-make install
+configureScript=./Configure
+configureFlags="-de -Dcc=gcc -Dprefix=$out -Uinstallusrbinperl $extraflags"
+dontAddPrefix=1
+
+genericBuild
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix
index da3d53abe5f..800430d216f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/default.nix
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
-{stdenv, fetchurl, patch}:
+{stdenv, fetchurl}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "perl-5.8.3";
+  name = "perl-5.8.5";
 
   builder = ./builder.sh;
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/mirror/CPAN/src/5.0/perl-5.8.3.tar.gz;
-    md5 = "6d2b389f8c6424b7af303f417947714f";
+    url = ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/mirror/CPAN/src/5.0/perl-5.8.5.tar.gz;
+    md5 = "49baa8d7d29b4a9713c06edeb81e6b1b";
   };
 
   # This patch does the following:
@@ -15,8 +15,5 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   #    !!! what are the security implications of this?
   # 2) Force the use of <errno.h>, not /usr/include/errno.h, on Linux
   #    systems.  (This actually appears to be due to a bug in Perl.)
-
-  srcPatch = ./patch;
-
-  inherit patch;
+  patches = [./no-sys-dirs.patch];
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/patch b/pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/no-sys-dirs.patch
similarity index 100%
rename from pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/patch
rename to pkgs/development/interpreters/perl/no-sys-dirs.patch