diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/SDL/setup-hook.sh b/pkgs/development/libraries/SDL/setup-hook.sh
index 553e8553a77f..df5ef1bc7e97 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/SDL/setup-hook.sh
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/SDL/setup-hook.sh
@@ -1,9 +1,15 @@
 addSDLPath () {
   if [ -e "$1/include/SDL" ]; then
     export SDL_PATH="${SDL_PATH-}${SDL_PATH:+ }$1/include/SDL"
-  fi
-  if [ -e "$1/lib" ]; then
-    export SDL_LIB_PATH="${SDL_LIB_PATH-}${SDL_LIB_PATH:+ }-L$1/lib"
+    # NB this doesn’t work with split dev packages because different packages
+    # will contain "include/SDL/" and "lib/" directories.
+    #
+    # However the SDL_LIB_PATH is consumed by SDL itself and serves to locate
+    # libraries like SDL2_mixer, SDL2_image, etc which are not split-package
+    # so the check above will only trigger on them.
+    if [ -e "$1/lib" ]; then
+      export SDL_LIB_PATH="${SDL_LIB_PATH-}${SDL_LIB_PATH:+ }-L$1/lib"
+    fi
   fi
 }