diff --git a/perl/lib/Nix/CopyClosure.pm b/perl/lib/Nix/CopyClosure.pm
index 4794fed9d..79c6dfccc 100644
--- a/perl/lib/Nix/CopyClosure.pm
+++ b/perl/lib/Nix/CopyClosure.pm
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ sub copyTo {
     if (scalar @missing > 0) {
         print STDERR "copying ", scalar @missing, " missing paths to ‘$sshHost’...\n";
         unless ($dryRun) {
-            open SSH, "| $progressViewer $compressor ssh $sshHost @{$sshOpts} '$decompressor nix-store --import' > /dev/null" or die;
+            open SSH, "| $compressor $progressViewer ssh $sshHost @{$sshOpts} '$decompressor nix-store --import' > /dev/null" or die;
             exportPaths(fileno(SSH), $sign, @missing);
             close SSH or die "copying store paths to remote machine `$sshHost' failed: $?";
         }
diff --git a/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in b/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in
index a38a31a8b..ca240d3ee 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ else { # Copy FROM the remote machine.
 	$progressViewer = "$progressViewer |" if $progressViewer ne "";
         unless ($dryRun) {
             my $extraOpts = $sign ? "--sign" : "";
-            system("set -f; ssh $sshHost @sshOpts 'nix-store --export $extraOpts @missing $compressor' | $decompressor $progressViewer $Nix::Config::binDir/nix-store --import > /dev/null") == 0
+            system("set -f; ssh $sshHost @sshOpts 'nix-store --export $extraOpts @missing $compressor' | $progressViewer $decompressor $Nix::Config::binDir/nix-store --import > /dev/null") == 0
                 or die "copying store paths from remote machine `$sshHost' failed: $?";
         }
     }