diff --git a/pkgs/applications/altcoins/zcash/libsnark/xbyak.nix b/pkgs/applications/altcoins/zcash/libsnark/xbyak.nix
index 1e5d19b044a5..88d432fd1637 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/altcoins/zcash/libsnark/xbyak.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/altcoins/zcash/libsnark/xbyak.nix
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1rc2nx8kj2lj13whxb9chhh79f4hmjjj4j1hpqsd0lbdb60jikrn";
   };
 
-  phases = ["unpackPhase" "installPhase"];
+  dontBuild = true;
 
   installPhase = ''
     mkdir -p $out/include
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/mozilla-plugins/bluejeans/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/mozilla-plugins/bluejeans/default.nix
index c33bff60e01e..fa98f2a9e785 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/mozilla-plugins/bluejeans/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/mozilla-plugins/bluejeans/default.nix
@@ -24,8 +24,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1fgjgzss0ghk734xpfidazyknfdn11pmyw77pc3wigl83dvx4nb2";
   };
 
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "installPhase" "fixupPhase" ];
-
   unpackPhase = "${dpkg}/bin/dpkg-deb -x $src .";
 
   installPhase =
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git-radar/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git-radar/default.nix
index 3b10c3305efc..1bf7a14932ec 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git-radar/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/version-management/git-and-tools/git-radar/default.nix
@@ -4,10 +4,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "git-radar-${version}";
   version = "0.5";
 
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "installPhase" ];
-
-  dontInstallSrc = true;
-
   src = fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "michaeldfallen";
     repo = "git-radar";
@@ -15,6 +11,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1915aqx8bfc4xmvhx2gfxv72p969a6rn436kii9w4yi38hibmqv9";
   };
 
+  dontBuild = true;
+
   installPhase = ''
     mkdir -p $out/bin
     cp git-radar fetch.sh prompt.bash prompt.zsh radar-base.sh $out
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/iputils/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/iputils/default.nix
index 1b6be8e4aa1b..dd5770744bf7 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/iputils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/iputils/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl
 , libsysfs, gnutls, openssl
-, libcap, sp, docbook_sgml_dtd_31
+, libcap, opensp, docbook_sgml_dtd_31
 , libidn, nettle
 , SGMLSpm, libgcrypt }:
 
@@ -18,13 +18,15 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   };
 
   prePatch = ''
-    sed -i s/sgmlspl/sgmlspl.pl/ doc/Makefile
+    sed -e s/sgmlspl/sgmlspl.pl/ \
+        -e s/nsgmls/onsgmls/ \
+      -i doc/Makefile
   '';
 
   makeFlags = "USE_GNUTLS=no";
 
   buildInputs = [
-    libsysfs openssl libcap sp docbook_sgml_dtd_31 SGMLSpm libgcrypt libidn nettle
+    libsysfs opensp openssl libcap docbook_sgml_dtd_31 SGMLSpm libgcrypt libidn nettle
   ];
 
   buildFlags = "man all ninfod";
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/backup/duply/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/backup/duply/default.nix
index 7917403a915e..e8d3a2e185ee 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/backup/duply/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/backup/duply/default.nix
@@ -12,16 +12,15 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
   buildInputs = [ txt2man makeWrapper ];
 
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "installPhase" ];
+  postPatch = "patchShebangs .";
 
   installPhase = ''
     mkdir -p "$out/bin"
     mkdir -p "$out/share/man/man1"
-    sed -i 's|/usr/bin/env bash|${bash}/bin/bash|' duply
-    mv duply "$out/bin"
+    install -vD duply "$out/bin"
     wrapProgram "$out/bin/duply" --set PATH \
-        "${coreutils}/bin:${python}/bin:${duplicity}/bin:${gawk}/bin:${gnupg1}/bin:${bash}/bin:${gnugrep}/bin:${txt2man}/bin:${which}/bin"
-    "$out/bin/duply" txt2man | gzip -c > "$out/share/man/man1/duply.1.gz"
+        ${stdenv.lib.makeBinPath [ coreutils python duplicity gawk gnupg1 bash gnugrep txt2man which ]}
+    "$out/bin/duply" txt2man > "$out/share/man/man1/duply.1"
   '';
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/compression/zstd/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/compression/zstd/default.nix
index fb9301bf1ced..2be3bf167dad 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/compression/zstd/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/compression/zstd/default.nix
@@ -12,10 +12,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     owner = "facebook";
   };
 
-  # The Makefiles don't properly use file targets, but blindly rebuild
-  # all dependencies on every make invocation. So no nice phases. :-(
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "installPhase" "fixupPhase" ];
-
   makeFlags = [
     "ZSTD_LEGACY_SUPPORT=${if legacySupport then "1" else "0"}"
   ];
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/connman_dmenu/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/connman_dmenu/default.nix
index 42ef7f4f4da7..c39c82df634c 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/connman_dmenu/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/connman_dmenu/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 { stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, connman, dmenu }:
+
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "connman_dmenu-${version}";
   version = "git-29-9-2015";
@@ -12,10 +13,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   buildInputs = [ connman dmenu ];
 
-  phases = "unpackPhase patchPhase installPhase fixupPhase";
+  dontBuild = true;
 
   # remove root requirement, see: https://github.com/march-linux/connman_dmenu/issues/3
-  patchPhase = ''
+  postPatch = ''
     sed -i '89,92d' connman_dmenu
   '';
 
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/quicktun/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/quicktun/default.nix
index 22c6331cb446..6332d6c85774 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/quicktun/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/quicktun/default.nix
@@ -13,14 +13,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   buildInputs = [ libsodium ];
 
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "buildPhase" "installPhase" ];
-
   buildPhase = "bash build.sh";
 
   installPhase = ''
-    mkdir -p $out/bin
     rm out/quicktun*tgz
-    cp -v out/quicktun* $out/bin/
+    install -vD out/quicktun* -t $out/bin
   '';
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/ratools/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/ratools/default.nix
index 00c1c86ea8b5..5e18ee80f99d 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/ratools/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/ratools/default.nix
@@ -11,15 +11,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "07m45bn9lzgbfihmxic23wqp73nxg5ihrvkigr450jq6gzvgwawq";
   };
 
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "buildPhase" "installPhase" ];
-
   makeFlags = "-C src";
 
   installPhase = ''
-    mkdir -p $out/{bin,sbin,share/man/man8}
-    cp bin/ractl $out/bin
-    cp bin/rad $out/sbin
-    cp man/* $out/share/man/man8
+    install -vD bin/* -t $out/bin
+    install -vD man/* -t $out/share/man/man8
   '';
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/tlspool/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/tlspool/default.nix
index 2a43358a5e1a..4a1e91f7f591 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/tlspool/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/tlspool/default.nix
@@ -23,11 +23,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
                   libkrb5 ldns libtool swig pkgs.pythonPackages.pip gnutls-kdh ]
                 ++ stdenv.lib.optional useSystemd systemd;
 
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "patchPhase" "postPatchPhase" "buildPhase" "installPhase" ]; 
-
   patches = [ ./fixing-rpath.patch ./configvar-fix.patch ];
 
-  postPatchPhase = ''
+  postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace etc/tlspool.conf \
       --replace "dnssec_rootkey ../etc/root.key" "dnssec_rootkey $out/etc/root.key" \
       --replace "pkcs11_path /usr/local/lib/softhsm/libsofthsm2.so" "pkcs11_path ${softhsm}/lib/softhsm/libsofthsm2.so"
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-prefetch-scripts/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-prefetch-scripts/default.nix
index 291b1a7c6002..95280bf60b30 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-prefetch-scripts/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-prefetch-scripts/default.nix
@@ -8,19 +8,13 @@ let mkPrefetchScript = tool: src: deps:
 
     buildInputs = [ makeWrapper ];
 
-    phases = [ "installPhase" "fixupPhase" ];
-    installPhase = ''
-      mkdir -p $out/bin
+    unpackPhase = ":";
 
-      local wrapArgs=""
-      cp ${src} $out/bin/$name;
-      for dep in ${stdenv.lib.concatStringsSep " " deps}; do
-        wrapArgs="$wrapArgs --prefix PATH : $dep/bin"
-      done
-      wrapArgs="$wrapArgs --prefix PATH : ${gnused}/bin"
-      wrapArgs="$wrapArgs --prefix PATH : ${nix.out}/bin" # For nix-hash
-      wrapArgs="$wrapArgs --set HOME /homeless-shelter"
-      wrapProgram $out/bin/$name $wrapArgs
+    installPhase = ''
+      install -vD ${src} $out/bin/$name;
+      wrapProgram $out/bin/$name \
+        --prefix PATH : ${stdenv.lib.makeBinPath (deps ++ [ gnused nix ])} \
+        --set HOME /homeless-shelter
     '';
 
     preferLocalBuild = true;
@@ -32,11 +26,11 @@ let mkPrefetchScript = tool: src: deps:
     };
   };
 in rec {
-  nix-prefetch-bzr = mkPrefetchScript "bzr" ../../../build-support/fetchbzr/nix-prefetch-bzr [bazaar];
-  nix-prefetch-cvs = mkPrefetchScript "cvs" ../../../build-support/fetchcvs/nix-prefetch-cvs [cvs];
-  nix-prefetch-git = mkPrefetchScript "git" ../../../build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git [git coreutils];
-  nix-prefetch-hg  = mkPrefetchScript "hg"  ../../../build-support/fetchhg/nix-prefetch-hg   [mercurial];
-  nix-prefetch-svn = mkPrefetchScript "svn" ../../../build-support/fetchsvn/nix-prefetch-svn [subversion.out];
+  nix-prefetch-bzr = mkPrefetchScript "bzr" ../../../build-support/fetchbzr/nix-prefetch-bzr [ bazaar ];
+  nix-prefetch-cvs = mkPrefetchScript "cvs" ../../../build-support/fetchcvs/nix-prefetch-cvs [ cvs ];
+  nix-prefetch-git = mkPrefetchScript "git" ../../../build-support/fetchgit/nix-prefetch-git [ git coreutils ];
+  nix-prefetch-hg  = mkPrefetchScript "hg"  ../../../build-support/fetchhg/nix-prefetch-hg   [ mercurial ];
+  nix-prefetch-svn = mkPrefetchScript "svn" ../../../build-support/fetchsvn/nix-prefetch-svn [ subversion ];
 
   nix-prefetch-scripts = buildEnv {
     name = "nix-prefetch-scripts";
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/security/jd-gui/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/security/jd-gui/default.nix
index 32bc1a4d7119..72cb19aa732b 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/security/jd-gui/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/security/jd-gui/default.nix
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ upx patchelf ];
 
-  phases = "unpackPhase installPhase";
   unpackPhase = "tar xf ${src}";
   installPhase = ''
     mkdir -p $out/bin
@@ -41,6 +40,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       $out/bin/jd-gui
   '';
 
+  dontStrip = true;
+
   meta = {
     description = "Fast Java Decompiler with powerful GUI";
     homepage    = "http://jd.benow.ca/";
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/security/omapd/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/security/omapd/default.nix
index ae1c2c05f147..9e01e8f0a9f3 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/security/omapd/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/security/omapd/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, cmake, qt4, gdb, zlib }:
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, qt4, gdb, zlib }:
 
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "omapd-${version}";
   version = "0.9.2";
 
@@ -11,23 +11,20 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   patches = [ ./zlib.patch ];
 
-  buildInputs = [ cmake qt4 zlib gdb ];
-
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "patchPhase" "buildPhase" "installPhase" ];
+  buildInputs = [ qt4 zlib gdb ];
 
   buildPhase = ''
     (cd plugins/RAMHashTables; qmake; make)
     qmake
     make
-    '';
+  '';
 
   installPhase = ''
-    mkdir -p $out $out/bin $out/etc $out/usr/lib/omapd/plugins
-    cp omapd $out/bin/.
-    cp omapd.conf $out/etc/.
-    cp plugins/libRAMHashTables.so $out/usr/lib/omapd/plugins/.
+    install -vD omapd $out/bin/omapd
+    install -vD omapd.conf $out/etc/omapd.conf
+    install -vD plugins/libRAMHashTables.so $out/usr/lib/omapd/plugins/libRAMHashTables.so
     ln -s $out/usr/lib/omapd/plugins $out/bin/plugins
-    '';
+  '';
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     homepage = http://code.google.com/p/omapd;
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/text/popfile/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/text/popfile/default.nix
index 4048093a3958..334c0ee403ca 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/text/popfile/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/text/popfile/default.nix
@@ -25,15 +25,12 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     TimeDate # == DateParse
     HTMLTemplate
     # IO::Socket::Socks is not in nixpkgs
-    # IOSocketSocks 
+    # IOSocketSocks
     IOSocketSSL
     NetSSLeay
     SOAPLite
   ]);
 
-
-  phases = [ "unpackPhase" "installPhase" "patchPhase" "postInstall" ];
-
   installPhase = ''
     mkdir -p $out/bin
     # I user `cd` rather than `cp $out/* ...` b/c the * breaks syntax
@@ -42,11 +39,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     cp -r * $out/bin
     cd $out/bin
     chmod +x *.pl
-  '';
 
-  patchPhase = "patchShebangs $out";
-
-  postInstall = ''
     find $out -name '*.pl' -executable | while read path; do
       wrapProgram "$path" \
         --prefix PERL5LIB : $PERL5LIB:$out/bin \
@@ -66,6 +59,4 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # http://getpopfile.org/docs/faq:systemrequirements
     platforms = stdenv.lib.platforms.linux;
   };
-
 }
-  
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index eaf297240db9..18f66f33b647 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -11943,7 +11943,6 @@ with pkgs;
   iproute = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/iproute { };
 
   iputils = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/iputils {
-    sp = spCompat;
     inherit (perlPackages) SGMLSpm;
   };
 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 78521902c521..8ad10d478672 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -6925,6 +6925,8 @@ in {
 
     propagatedBuildInputs = with self; [ six pycrypto ];
 
+    doCheck = false;
+
     meta = {
       description = "libthumbor is the python extension to thumbor";
       homepage = http://github.com/heynemann/libthumbor;