diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/git.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/git.sh
index b6ad819..185588a 100755
--- a/patches/pkgbuild/git.sh
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/git.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,17 @@
 # choice will have to be made then: build Rust, or drop the flag. Recorded now
 # rather than discovered twice.
 set -euo pipefail
+# STAGE 1 ONLY -- this section, not this file.
+#
+# It used to be expressed by naming this hook in STAGE2_SKIP_HOOKS, which skips
+# the whole FILE. Then a section was appended that both stages need, and it
+# silently never ran: the package kept failing in stage 2 on the very thing the
+# new section fixes, and the log said "hook skipped (stage-1 only)" about a hook
+# that was now two thirds relevant.
+#
+# The scope belongs next to the reason, so each section decides for itself.
+if [ "${EL_STAGE:-1}" = 1 ]; then
+
 python3 - <<'PY'
 import io
 s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
@@ -45,6 +56,9 @@ grep -q "'zlib-ng'" PKGBUILD && {
 grep -qF "'grep' 'shadow' 'zlib')" PKGBUILD || {
     echo "git: zlib not substituted in depends" >&2; exit 1; }
 echo "git: plain zlib (no zlib-ng headers on the host); STAGE-1 ONLY"
+else
+    echo "git: zlib-ng available in the chroot; keeping Arch's choice"
+fi
 
 # --- no man pages -------------------------------------------------------------
 #
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/libarchive.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/libarchive.sh
index ecb0529..8290974 100755
--- a/patches/pkgbuild/libarchive.sh
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/libarchive.sh
@@ -37,6 +37,15 @@
 # leaves the package uninstallable for a reason the diff appears to fix -- the
 # fifth place, and the one that has cost the most time in this port.
 set -euo pipefail
+
+# STAGE 1 ONLY, the whole file. Expressed here rather than in a list kept by the
+# driver: a list of file names cannot say WHY, and when a hook later grows a
+# section that both stages need, the list silently skips that too. That happened
+# to git and meson.
+if [ "${EL_STAGE:-1}" != 1 ]; then
+    echo "libarchive: nothing to do at stage 2 -- our libxml2 and icu agree in the chroot"
+    exit 0
+fi
 python3 - <<'ZZPY'
 import io, re
 s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/libgcrypt.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/libgcrypt.sh
index 6e94427..7af1ab6 100755
--- a/patches/pkgbuild/libgcrypt.sh
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/libgcrypt.sh
@@ -53,6 +53,15 @@
 # MAKEFLAGS bound inside build() rather than at hook level.
 set -euo pipefail
 
+# STAGE 1 ONLY, the whole file. Expressed here rather than in a list kept by the
+# driver: a list of file names cannot say WHY, and when a hook later grows a
+# section that both stages need, the list silently skips that too. That happened
+# to git and meson.
+if [ "${EL_STAGE:-1}" != 1 ]; then
+    echo "libgcrypt: nothing to do at stage 2 -- our libgpg-error is installed in the chroot"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 WORK="${WORK:-$HOME/work/arch-s390x}"
 PREFIX="$WORK/stage1-prefix"
 
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/meson.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/meson.sh
index 49a759d..01c6511 100755
--- a/patches/pkgbuild/meson.sh
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/meson.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,17 @@
 # will actually import this. Deriving it from the interpreter running the build
 # is the intuitive thing and the wrong one.
 set -euo pipefail
+# STAGE 1 ONLY -- this section, not this file.
+#
+# It used to be expressed by naming this hook in STAGE2_SKIP_HOOKS, which skips
+# the whole FILE. Then a section was appended that both stages need, and it
+# silently never ran: the package kept failing in stage 2 on the very thing the
+# new section fixes, and the log said "hook skipped (stage-1 only)" about a hook
+# that was now two thirds relevant.
+#
+# The scope belongs next to the reason, so each section decides for itself.
+if [ "${EL_STAGE:-1}" = 1 ]; then
+
 python3 - <<'ZZPY'
 import io
 s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
@@ -89,6 +100,9 @@ ZZPY
 grep -q 'posix_local scheme installs' PKGBUILD || {
     echo "meson: the relocation was not inserted" >&2; exit 1; }
 echo "meson: wheel relocated out of /usr/local; STAGE-1 ONLY"
+else
+    echo "meson: chroot python has no posix_local scheme; no relocation needed"
+fi
 
 # --- no reference manual ------------------------------------------------------
 #
diff --git a/scripts/bootstrap-pacman.sh b/scripts/bootstrap-pacman.sh
index 3d369b3..3f35e0e 100755
--- a/scripts/bootstrap-pacman.sh
+++ b/scripts/bootstrap-pacman.sh
@@ -403,7 +403,11 @@ build_package() {
     local hook="$PATCH_DIR/$name.sh"
     if [ -f "$hook" ]; then
         git checkout -- PKGBUILD 2>/dev/null || true
-        bash "$hook" || return 1
+        # EL_STAGE tells the hook which stage is asking. Some hooks -- git,
+        # meson, libgcrypt, libarchive -- exist partly or wholly to work around
+        # something about the HOST, and that part must not run in the chroot
+        # where the problem does not exist.
+        EL_STAGE=1 bash "$hook" || return 1
     fi
     rm -f ./*.pkg.tar.*
     # Explicit `|| return 1`. Relying on `set -e` here does NOT work: callers
diff --git a/scripts/build-stage2.sh b/scripts/build-stage2.sh
index 8b45040..21ba418 100755
--- a/scripts/build-stage2.sh
+++ b/scripts/build-stage2.sh
@@ -687,7 +687,7 @@ NOTE
 #   backstop.
 #
 #   libxml2 -- because the xar cycle reformed INSIDE stage 2. libarchive is in
-#   STAGE2_SKIP_HOOKS, so stage 2 rebuilt it as Arch does, with xar, linking the
+#   a hook that runs at stage 1 only, so stage 2 rebuilt it as Arch does, with
 #   libxml2 that happened to be installed at that moment: the stage-1 one, which
 #   wants the host's libicuuc.so.76. bsdtar then could not start, and bsdtar is
 #   what makepkg uses to extract sources and write packages -- so 39 of 39
@@ -781,8 +781,6 @@ CHROOT_STAGE2_PKGS=(
     python-setuptools-scm
 )
 
-STAGE2_SKIP_HOOKS=(libgcrypt git meson libarchive)
-
 # Packages whose sources must be extracted on the HOST, because the chroot
 # cannot extract anything until they are rebuilt.
 #
@@ -825,12 +823,6 @@ host_extract() {
     return 1
 }
 
-skip_hook() {
-    local n="$1" h
-    for h in "${STAGE2_SKIP_HOOKS[@]}"; do [ "$n" = "$h" ] && return 0; done
-    return 1
-}
-
 # stage2_build <name> -- rebuild one package inside the chroot and install it.
 #
 # The hook is applied on the HOST, not in the chroot: hooks are seds over the
@@ -843,10 +835,18 @@ stage2_build() {
 
     ( cd "$dir" && git checkout -- PKGBUILD 2>/dev/null ) || true
     if [ -f "$PATCH_DIR/$name.sh" ]; then
-        if skip_hook "$name"; then
-            echo "  hook skipped (stage-1 only)"
-        else
-            ( cd "$dir" && bash "$PATCH_DIR/$name.sh" ) || {
+            # EL_STAGE=2, and no skip list any more.
+            #
+            # There WAS a list -- naming hooks to ignore here. It skipped the
+            # whole FILE, and that broke silently the moment a listed hook grew a
+            # section both stages need: git and meson each kept failing in stage
+            # 2 on exactly what their new sections fix, while the log said
+            # "hook skipped (stage-1 only)" about a hook that was by then two
+            # thirds relevant.
+            #
+            # A list of file names cannot say why. The hooks read EL_STAGE and
+            # decide per section, with the reason written beside the guard.
+            ( cd "$dir" && EL_STAGE=2 bash "$PATCH_DIR/$name.sh" ) || {
                 echo "  hook failed" >&2; return 1; }
             # A hook can leave a PKGBUILD that no longer parses, and makepkg
             # reports that far from its cause:
@@ -863,7 +863,6 @@ stage2_build() {
             # calls a valid file broken without it.
             ( cd "$dir" && bash -O extglob -n PKGBUILD ) || {
                 echo "  hook left an unparseable PKGBUILD" >&2; return 1; }
-        fi
     fi
 
     ( cd "$dir" && rm -f ./*.pkg.tar.* ) || true