diff --git a/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh b/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh
index 91730a363e..3bbf9820e7 100755
--- a/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh
+++ b/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ WORKSPACE=$1
 
 [ "x${WORKSPACE}" != "x" ] || WORKSPACE="$(readlink -f $(dirname "$0")/..)"
 [ "x${BUILD_DIR}" != "x" ] || BUILD_DIR="${WORKSPACE}/build"
+[ "x${DIST_DIR}" != "x" ] || DIST_DIR="${WORKSPACE}/build"
 
 export TMPDIR="$(mktemp -d ${DIST_DIR}/run-python-dtest.XXXXXX)"
 export PYTHONIOENCODING="utf-8"