diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 30bf698e3d..6b8618bbac 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
  * Fix Adler32 digest for compressed sstables (CASSANDRA-8778)
  * Add nodetool statushandoff/statusbackup (CASSANDRA-8912)
 Merged from 2.0:
+ * Allow specifying the tmp dir (CASSANDRA-7712)
  * Improve compaction estimated tasks estimation (CASSANDRA-8904)
  * Fix duplicate up/down messages sent to native clients (CASSANDRA-7816)
  * Expose commit log archive status via JMX (CASSANDRA-8734)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 4ced4e22e3..bdb36466b4 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@
     <property name="test.long.src" value="${test.dir}/long"/>
     <property name="test.pig.src" value="${test.dir}/pig"/>
     <property name="dist.dir" value="${build.dir}/dist"/>
+    <property name="tmp.dir" value="${java.io.tmpdir}"/>
 	
 	<property name="source.version" value="1.7"/>
 	<property name="target.version" value="1.7"/>
@@ -1182,6 +1183,7 @@
       <jvmarg value="-Dmigration-sstable-root=${test.data}/migration-sstables"/>
       <jvmarg value="-Dcassandra.ring_delay_ms=1000"/>
       <jvmarg value="-Dcassandra.tolerate_sstable_size=true"/>
+      <jvmarg value="-Djava.io.tmpdir=${tmp.dir}"/>
     </testmacro>
     <fileset dir="${test.unit.src}">
         <exclude name="**/pig/*.java" />