diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/default.nix
index 8b8732af0656..f7adfad455bd 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/default.nix
@@ -311,6 +311,8 @@ rec {
     Similar to writeShellScriptBin and writeScriptBin.
     Writes an executable Shell script to /nix/store/<store path>/bin/<name> and
     checks its syntax with shellcheck and the shell's -n option.
+    Individual checks can be foregone by putting them in the excludeShellChecks
+    list, e.g. [ "SC2016" ].
     Automatically includes sane set of shellopts (errexit, nounset, pipefail)
     and handles creation of PATH based on runtimeInputs
 
@@ -338,6 +340,7 @@ rec {
     , runtimeInputs ? [ ]
     , meta ? { }
     , checkPhase ? null
+    , excludeShellChecks ? [  ]
     }:
     writeTextFile {
       inherit name meta;
@@ -363,10 +366,11 @@ rec {
         # but we still want to use writeShellApplication on those platforms
         let
           shellcheckSupported = lib.meta.availableOn stdenv.buildPlatform shellcheck.compiler;
+          excludeOption = lib.optionalString (excludeShellChecks != [  ]) "--exclude '${lib.concatStringsSep "," excludeShellChecks}'";
           shellcheckCommand = lib.optionalString shellcheckSupported ''
             # use shellcheck which does not include docs
             # pandoc takes long to build and documentation isn't needed for just running the cli
-            ${lib.getExe (haskell.lib.compose.justStaticExecutables shellcheck.unwrapped)} "$target"
+            ${lib.getExe (haskell.lib.compose.justStaticExecutables shellcheck.unwrapped)} ${excludeOption} "$target"
           '';
         in
         if checkPhase == null then ''
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/test/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/test/default.nix
index 683f4b9fd04f..cbd1b388ef66 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/test/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/test/default.nix
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ recurseIntoAttrs {
     then callPackage ./references.nix {}
     else null;
   writeCBin = callPackage ./writeCBin.nix {};
+  writeShellApplication = callPackage ./writeShellApplication.nix {};
   writeScriptBin = callPackage ./writeScriptBin.nix {};
   writeShellScript = callPackage ./write-shell-script.nix {};
   writeShellScriptBin = callPackage ./writeShellScriptBin.nix {};
diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/test/writeShellApplication.nix b/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/test/writeShellApplication.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6ce6f0720fcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/trivial-builders/test/writeShellApplication.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/*
+  Run with:
+
+      cd nixpkgs
+      nix-build -A tests.trivial-builders.writeShellApplication
+*/
+
+{ lib, writeShellApplication, runCommand }:
+let
+  pkg = writeShellApplication {
+    name = "test-script";
+    excludeShellChecks = [ "SC2016" ];
+    text = ''
+      echo -e '#!/usr/bin/env bash\n' \
+       'echo "$SHELL"' > /tmp/something.sh  # this line would normally
+                                            # ...cause shellcheck error
+    '';
+  };
+in
+  assert pkg.meta.mainProgram == "test-script";
+  runCommand "test-writeShellApplication" { } ''
+
+    echo Testing if writeShellApplication builds without shellcheck error...
+
+    target=${lib.getExe pkg}
+
+    touch $out
+  ''
+