diff --git a/pkgs/tools/text/groff/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/text/groff/default.nix
index a3df96175675..4055c5c083d6 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/text/groff/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/text/groff/default.nix
@@ -3,26 +3,23 @@
 , psutils, netpbm #for html output
 , buildPackages
 , autoreconfHook
+, pkgconfig
+, texinfo
 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "groff";
-  version = "1.22.3";
+  version = "1.22.4";
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "mirror://gnu/groff/${pname}-${version}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "1998v2kcs288d3y7kfxpvl369nqi06zbbvjzafyvyl3pr7bajj1s";
+    sha256 = "14q2mldnr1vx0l9lqp9v2f6iww24gj28iyh4j2211hyynx67p3p7";
   };
 
   outputs = [ "out" "man" "doc" "info" "perl" ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = false;
 
-  patches = [
-    ./look-for-ar.patch
-    ./mdate-determinism.patch
-  ];
-
   postPatch = stdenv.lib.optionalString (psutils != null) ''
     substituteInPlace src/preproc/html/pre-html.cpp \
       --replace "psselect" "${psutils}/bin/psselect"
@@ -38,7 +35,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   '';
 
   buildInputs = [ ghostscript psutils netpbm perl ];
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook pkgconfig texinfo ];
 
   # Builds running without a chroot environment may detect the presence
   # of /usr/X11 in the host system, leading to an impure build of the
@@ -62,11 +59,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   doCheck = true;
 
-  # Remove example output with (random?) colors and creation date
-  # to avoid non-determinism in the output.
   postInstall = ''
-    rm "$doc"/share/doc/groff/examples/hdtbl/*color*ps
-    find "$doc"/share/doc/groff/ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i -e 's/%%CreationDate: .*//'
     for f in 'man.local' 'mdoc.local'; do
         cat '${./site.tmac}' >>"$out/share/groff/site-tmac/$f"
     done
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/text/groff/look-for-ar.patch b/pkgs/tools/text/groff/look-for-ar.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 3b4d09c260fa..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/tools/text/groff/look-for-ar.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-commit 988a001f969262089579958827652da00fda096f
-Author: Ben Gamari <ben@smart-cactus.org>
-Date:   Tue Oct 17 16:15:20 2017 -0400
-
-    Look for AR
-
-diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
-index bc156ce..cc02126 100644
---- a/Makefile.in
-+++ b/Makefile.in
-@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ INSTALL_SCRIPT=@INSTALL_SCRIPT@
- INSTALL_DATA=@INSTALL_DATA@
- INSTALL_INFO=@INSTALL_INFO@
- LN_S=@LN_S@
--AR=ar
-+AR=@AR@
- ETAGS=etags
- ETAGSFLAGS=
- # Flag that tells etags to assume C++.
-diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
-index c779165..6d53f5e 100644
---- a/configure.ac
-+++ b/configure.ac
-@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ AC_PREREQ([2.62])
- 
- AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([src/include/config.h:src/include/config.hin])
- AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/roff/groff/groff.cpp])
-+AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
- 
- AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
- 
-@@ -73,6 +74,7 @@ GROFF_PROG_YACC
- GROFF_DOC_CHECK
- GROFF_MAKEINFO
- AC_PROG_RANLIB
-+AC_CHECK_TOOL([AR], [ar], [ar])
- GROFF_INSTALL_SH
- GROFF_INSTALL_INFO
- AC_PROG_INSTALL
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/text/groff/mdate-determinism.patch b/pkgs/tools/text/groff/mdate-determinism.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 1253d1133940..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/tools/text/groff/mdate-determinism.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-diff --git a/Makefile.comm b/Makefile.comm
-index 75efc22..b757000 100644
---- a/Makefile.comm
-+++ b/Makefile.comm
-@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ extraclean: distclean
- 	     -e "s|@MAN1EXT@|$(man1ext)|g" \
- 	     -e "s|@MAN5EXT@|$(man5ext)|g" \
- 	     -e "s|@MAN7EXT@|$(man7ext)|g" \
--	     -e "s|@MDATE@|`$(SHELL) $(top_srcdir)/mdate.sh $<`|g" \
-+	     -e "s|@MDATE@|`date +'%-d %B %Y' -r $(top_srcdir)/ChangeLog`|g" \
- 	     -e "s|@OLDFONTDIR@|$(oldfontdir)|g" \
- 	     -e "s|@PDFDOCDIR@|$(pdfdocdir)|g" \
- 	     -e "s|@SYSTEMMACRODIR@|$(systemtmacdir)|g" \