diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git b/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git
index 7b05adab08c3..979aa531092d 100755
--- a/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ clone_user_rev() {
     eval "$NIX_PREFETCH_GIT_CHECKOUT_HOOK"
     if test -z "$leaveDotGit"; then
 	echo "removing \`.git'..." >&2
-        find $out -name .git\* | xargs rm -rf
+        find $dir -name .git\* | xargs rm -rf
     fi
 }