diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb b/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb
index c1921c9756..3dff2e9ef9 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb
@@ -660,7 +660,7 @@ def check_for_multiple_volumes
   real_cellar = HOMEBREW_CELLAR.realpath
 
   tmp_prefix = ENV['HOMEBREW_TEMP'] || '/tmp'
-  tmp = Pathname.new `/usr/bin/mktemp -d #{tmp_prefix}/homebrew-brew-doctor-XXXX`.strip
+  tmp = Pathname.new with_system_path { `mktemp -d #{tmp_prefix}/homebrew-brew-doctor-XXXX` }.strip
   real_temp = tmp.realpath.parent
 
   where_cellar = volumes.which real_cellar
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
index cde6da4e45..888eefd9fd 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
@@ -612,8 +612,8 @@ class Formula
     ohai "Patching"
     patch_list.each do |p|
       case p.compression
-        when :gzip  then safe_system "/usr/bin/gunzip",  p.compressed_filename
-        when :bzip2 then safe_system "/usr/bin/bunzip2", p.compressed_filename
+        when :gzip  then with_system_path { safe_system "gunzip",  p.compressed_filename }
+        when :bzip2 then with_system_path { safe_system "bunzip2", p.compressed_filename }
       end
       # -f means don't prompt the user if there are errors; just exit with non-zero status
       safe_system '/usr/bin/patch', '-f', *(p.patch_args)
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
index b10764803a..f99b0a03ee 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils.rb
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ end
 # GZips the given paths, and returns the gzipped paths
 def gzip *paths
   paths.collect do |path|
-    system "/usr/bin/gzip", path
+    with_system_path { safe_system 'gzip', path }
     Pathname.new("#{path}.gz")
   end
 end