diff --git a/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh b/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh
index 4747923f..e573ffe5 100644
--- a/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh
+++ b/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh
@@ -45,8 +45,7 @@ mk_tmpdir() {
    else
       local tool="${0##*/}"
       local pid="$$"
-      local x="$TMPDIR"
-      TMPDIR=`TMPDIR="$x" mktemp -d -t "${tool}.${pid}.XXXXXX"` \
+      TMPDIR=`mktemp -d -t "${tool}.${pid}.XXXXXX"` \
          || die "Cannot make secure tmpdir"
    fi
 }
diff --git a/t/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh b/t/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh
index f8acfb8b..e8e6eb67 100644
--- a/t/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh
+++ b/t/lib/bash/tmpdir.sh
@@ -41,10 +41,9 @@ cmd_ok "test ! -d $tmpdir" "rm_tmpdir removes --tmpdir"
 # ###########################################################################
 
 tempdir_test () {
-   new_TEMP="/tmp/tmpdir_test"
-   rm -rf "$new_TEMP"
-   mkdir "$new_TEMP"
-   local TMPDIR="$new_TEMP/"
+   local new_TEMP="/tmp/tmpdir_test"
+   [ -d "$new_TEMP" ] || mkdir "$new_TEMP"
+   export TMPDIR="$new_TEMP"
 
    mk_tmpdir