diff --git a/pkgs/tools/virtualization/nixos-container/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/virtualization/nixos-container/default.nix
index e8b2f1dc88e591..128d34a00691c8 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/virtualization/nixos-container/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/virtualization/nixos-container/default.nix
@@ -1,39 +1,45 @@
-{ substituteAll
+{ substitute
 , perl
 , shadow
 , util-linux
+, runtimeShell
 , configurationDirectory ? "/etc/nixos-containers"
 , stateDirectory ? "/var/lib/nixos-containers"
 , nixosTests
 }:
 
-substituteAll {
-    name = "nixos-container";
-    dir = "bin";
-    isExecutable = true;
-    src = ./nixos-container.pl;
-    perl = perl.withPackages (p: [ p.FileSlurp ]);
-    su = "${shadow.su}/bin/su";
-    utillinux = util-linux;
+substitute {
+  name = "nixos-container";
+  dir = "bin";
+  isExecutable = true;
+  src = ./nixos-container.pl;
 
-    inherit configurationDirectory stateDirectory;
+  substitutions = [
+    "--subst-var-by" "configurationDirectory" configurationDirectory
+    "--subst-var-by" "perl" (perl.withPackages (p: [ p.FileSlurp ]))
+    "--subst-var-by" "stateDirectory" stateDirectory
+    "--subst-var-by" "su" "${shadow.su}/bin/su"
+    "--subst-var-by" "utillinux" util-linux
+    "--subst-var-by" "shell" runtimeShell
+  ];
 
-    passthru = {
-      tests = {
-        inherit (nixosTests)
-          containers-imperative
-          containers-ip
-          containers-tmpfs
-          containers-ephemeral
-          containers-unified-hierarchy
-          ;
-      };
+  passthru = {
+    tests = {
+      inherit (nixosTests)
+        containers-imperative
+        containers-ip
+        containers-tmpfs
+        containers-ephemeral
+        containers-unified-hierarchy
+        ;
     };
+  };
 
-    postInstall = ''
-      t=$out/share/bash-completion/completions
-      mkdir -p $t
-      cp ${./nixos-container-completion.sh} $t/nixos-container
-    '';
-    meta.mainProgram = "nixos-container";
+  postInstall = ''
+    t=$out/share/bash-completion/completions
+    mkdir -p $t
+    cp ${./nixos-container-completion.sh} $t/nixos-container
+  '';
+
+  meta.mainProgram = "nixos-container";
 }