diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/generic.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/generic.nix
index 0e09b0c20ee0..a84cb41bf30f 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/generic.nix
@@ -141,8 +141,7 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
     siteVersionDir=`ls $out/share/emacs | grep -v site-lisp | head -n 1`
 
-    rm -rf $out/var
-    rm -rf $siteVersionDir
+    rm -r $out/share/emacs/$siteVersionDir/site-lisp
   '' + lib.optionalString withCsrc ''
     for srcdir in src lisp lwlib ; do
       dstdir=$out/share/emacs/$siteVersionDir/$srcdir