diff --git a/src/libstore/build/hook-instance.cc b/src/libstore/build/hook-instance.cc
index ea2ae210e..075ad554f 100644
--- a/src/libstore/build/hook-instance.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/build/hook-instance.cc
@@ -35,7 +35,10 @@ HookInstance::HookInstance()
     /* Fork the hook. */
     pid = startProcess([&]() {
 
-        commonChildInit(fromHook.writeSide.get());
+        if (dup2(fromHook.writeSide.get(), STDERR_FILENO) == -1)
+            throw SysError("cannot pipe standard error into log file");
+
+        commonChildInit();
 
         if (chdir("/") == -1) throw SysError("changing into /");
 
diff --git a/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc b/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
index 4f21862ca..3484d2044 100644
--- a/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
@@ -1656,7 +1656,7 @@ void LocalDerivationGoal::runChild()
 
     try { /* child */
 
-        commonChildInit(-1);
+        commonChildInit();
 
         try {
             setupSeccomp();
diff --git a/src/libutil/util.cc b/src/libutil/util.cc
index a703c5650..843a10eab 100644
--- a/src/libutil/util.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/util.cc
@@ -1968,7 +1968,7 @@ std::string showBytes(uint64_t bytes)
 
 
 // FIXME: move to libstore/build
-void commonChildInit(int stderrFd)
+void commonChildInit()
 {
     logger = makeSimpleLogger();
 
@@ -1982,10 +1982,6 @@ void commonChildInit(int stderrFd)
     if (setsid() == -1)
         throw SysError("creating a new session");
 
-    /* Dup the write side of the logger pipe into stderr. */
-    if (stderrFd != -1 && dup2(stderrFd, STDERR_FILENO) == -1)
-        throw SysError("cannot pipe standard error into log file");
-
     /* Dup stderr to stdout. */
     if (dup2(STDERR_FILENO, STDOUT_FILENO) == -1)
         throw SysError("cannot dup stderr into stdout");
diff --git a/src/libutil/util.hh b/src/libutil/util.hh
index 52ca36fd1..a8e6f9fbb 100644
--- a/src/libutil/util.hh
+++ b/src/libutil/util.hh
@@ -704,7 +704,7 @@ typedef std::function<bool(const Path & path)> PathFilter;
 extern PathFilter defaultPathFilter;
 
 /* Common initialisation performed in child processes. */
-void commonChildInit(int stderrFd);
+void commonChildInit();
 
 /* Create a Unix domain socket. */
 AutoCloseFD createUnixDomainSocket();