diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index c56e672..40bcea2 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ do_subst = sed                                  \
   -e 's,[@]GODIR[@],$(guileobjectdir),g'
 
 scripts/gash: scripts/gash.in Makefile
+	mkdir -p scripts
 	$(do_subst) < $(srcdir)/scripts/gash.in > scripts/gash
 	chmod a+x scripts/gash
 
@@ -83,7 +84,7 @@ EXTRA_DIST +=                                   \
 TEST_EXTENSIONS = .scm .sh
 SCM_LOG_COMPILER = $(top_builddir)/pre-inst-env $(GUILE)
 AM_SCM_LOG_FLAGS = --no-auto-compile
-SH_LOG_COMPILER = $(top_builddir)/pre-inst-env $(top_builddir)/test.sh
+SH_LOG_COMPILER = $(top_builddir)/pre-inst-env $(top_srcdir)/test.sh
 
 .PHONY: check-spec
 check-spec:
diff --git a/test.sh b/test.sh
index 8fa4fb8..db2f3c5 100755
--- a/test.sh
+++ b/test.sh
@@ -3,23 +3,31 @@ if [ -n "$V" ]; then
     set -x
 fi
 DIFF=${DIFF-diff}
-TEST_SHELL=${TEST_SHELL-scripts/gash}
+TEST_SHELL=${TEST_SHELL-gash}
 
 t="$1"
-b=tests/$(basename "$t" .sh)
+s=tests/$(basename "$t" .sh)
+
+# This is a hack to make sure we can build from an external directory.
+# We move into the source directory, and then send all of our output
+# back to the build directory.
+export TEST_TMP=$(pwd)
+b=$(pwd)/$s
+cd $(dirname "$t")/..
+
 set +e
-timeout 10 $TEST_SHELL -e "$b".sh -s --long file0 file1 > "$b".1 2> "$b".2
+timeout 10 $TEST_SHELL -e "$s".sh -s --long file0 file1 > "$b".1 2> "$b".2
 r=$?
 set -e
-if [ -f "$b".exit ]; then
-    e=$(cat "$b".exit)
+if [ -f "$s".exit ]; then
+    e=$(cat "$s".exit)
 else
     e=0
 fi
 [ $r = $e ] || exit 1
-if [ -f "$b".stdout ]; then
-        $DIFF -u "$b".stdout $b.1
+if [ -f "$s".stdout ]; then
+        $DIFF -u "$s".stdout $b.1
 fi
-if [ -f "$b".stderr ]; then
-    $DIFF -u "$b".stderr "$b".2
+if [ -f "$s".stderr ]; then
+    $DIFF -u "$s".stderr "$b".2
 fi
diff --git a/tests/50-redirect-append.sh b/tests/50-redirect-append.sh
index c6c8db9..4bbbbc3 100644
--- a/tests/50-redirect-append.sh
+++ b/tests/50-redirect-append.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-echo foo > bar
-echo foo >> bar
-cat bar
-rm bar
+echo foo > $TEST_TMP/bar
+echo foo >> $TEST_TMP/bar
+cat $TEST_TMP/bar
+rm $TEST_TMP/bar
diff --git a/tests/60-subst.sh b/tests/60-subst.sh
index ae8ba25..271d6f0 100644
--- a/tests/60-subst.sh
+++ b/tests/60-subst.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,6 @@ subst () {
         $1 > $2
 }
 
-subst tests/data/foo foo.tmp
-cat foo.tmp
-rm foo.tmp
+subst tests/data/foo $TEST_TMP/foo.tmp
+cat $TEST_TMP/foo.tmp
+rm $TEST_TMP/foo.tmp