diff --git a/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/generic.nix b/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/generic.nix
index b24140c438a20..bbc373ac9d382 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/generic.nix
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ let
       , pkg-config, libxml2, tzdata, libkrb5, substituteAll, darwin
       , linux-pam, bison, flex, perl, docbook_xml_dtd_45, docbook-xsl-nons, libxslt
 
-      , removeReferencesTo, writeShellApplication
+      , removeReferencesTo, writeShellScriptBin
 
       , systemdSupport ? lib.meta.availableOn stdenv.hostPlatform systemdLibs
       , gssSupport ? with stdenv.hostPlatform; !isWindows && !isStatic
@@ -53,10 +53,7 @@ let
       else
         stdenv;
 
-    pg_config = writeShellApplication {
-      name = "pg_config";
-      text = builtins.readFile ./pg_config.sh;
-    };
+    pg_config = writeShellScriptBin "pg_config" (builtins.readFile ./pg_config.sh);
   in stdenv'.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     inherit version;
     pname = pname + lib.optionalString jitSupport "-jit";
diff --git a/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/pg_config.sh b/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/pg_config.sh
index 9538b213fb97a..d6293999a12dc 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/pg_config.sh
+++ b/pkgs/servers/sql/postgresql/pg_config.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+set -euo pipefail
+
 # The real pg_config needs to be in the same path as the "postgres" binary
 # to return proper paths. However, we want it in the -dev output to prevent
 # cyclic references and to prevent blowing up the runtime closure. Thus, we