diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
index 8f309c7614..a5369331ff 100644
--- a/acinclude.m4
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ AC_PROG_CC
 
 OPENAFS_AUTOHEADER_TOP
 OPENAFS_AUTOHEADER_BOTTOM
-SRCDIR_PARENT=`pwd`
+OPENAFS_TOPDIRS
 
 #BOZO_SAVE_CORES pam
 OPENAFS_OPTIONS
@@ -74,7 +74,6 @@ OPENAFS_YET_MORE_OPTION_TESTS
 OPENAFS_OUTPUT_VARIABLES
 OPENAFS_FUSE
 OPENAFS_SWIG
-OPENAFS_TOPDIRS
 OPENAFS_CROSSTOOLS
 OPENAFS_LINT
 OPENAFS_CRYPT_CHECKS
diff --git a/src/cf/crosstools.m4 b/src/cf/crosstools.m4
index 2ea0c87370..7ca9bc2739 100644
--- a/src/cf/crosstools.m4
+++ b/src/cf/crosstools.m4
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ if test "x$with_crosstools_dir" != "x"; then
         AC_MSG_ERROR(Tools not found in $with_crosstools_dir)
     fi
 else
-    COMPILE_ET_PATH="${SRCDIR_PARENT}/src/comerr/compile_et"
-    CONFIGTOOL_PATH="${SRCDIR_PARENT}/src/config/config"
-    RXGEN_PATH="${SRCDIR_PARENT}/src/rxgen/rxgen"
+    COMPILE_ET_PATH="${TOP_OBJDIR}/src/comerr/compile_et"
+    CONFIGTOOL_PATH="${TOP_OBJDIR}/src/config/config"
+    RXGEN_PATH="${TOP_OBJDIR}/src/rxgen/rxgen"
 fi
 AC_SUBST(COMPILE_ET_PATH)
 AC_SUBST(CONFIGTOOL_PATH)
diff --git a/src/cf/linux-test1.m4 b/src/cf/linux-test1.m4
index 010a4464f2..97f6bf508d 100644
--- a/src/cf/linux-test1.m4
+++ b/src/cf/linux-test1.m4
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ $2
 
 MODULE_LICENSE("http://www.openafs.org/dl/license10.html");
 _ACEOF
-    echo make -C $LINUX_KERNEL_BUILD M=$SRCDIR_PARENT/conftest.dir $SPARSE_MAKEFLAGS modules KBUILD_VERBOSE=1 >&AS_MESSAGE_LOG_FD &&
-    make -C $LINUX_KERNEL_BUILD M=$SRCDIR_PARENT/conftest.dir $SPARSE_MAKEFLAGS modules KBUILD_VERBOSE=1 >&AS_MESSAGE_LOG_FD 2>conftest.err &&
+    echo make -C $LINUX_KERNEL_BUILD M=$TOP_OBJDIR/conftest.dir $SPARSE_MAKEFLAGS modules KBUILD_VERBOSE=1 >&AS_MESSAGE_LOG_FD &&
+    make -C $LINUX_KERNEL_BUILD M=$TOP_OBJDIR/conftest.dir $SPARSE_MAKEFLAGS modules KBUILD_VERBOSE=1 >&AS_MESSAGE_LOG_FD 2>conftest.err &&
     ! grep -i "WARNING: .* undefined!$" conftest.err >/dev/null 2>&1
     then [$3]
     else
diff --git a/src/cf/sysname.m4 b/src/cf/sysname.m4
index 2530ecd106..6a87ca5601 100644
--- a/src/cf/sysname.m4
+++ b/src/cf/sysname.m4
@@ -449,6 +449,6 @@ esac
 # Set the `make dest` target destination path.
 #
 if test "x${DEST}" = "x"; then
-    DEST="${SRCDIR_PARENT}/${AFS_SYSNAME}/dest"
+    DEST="${TOP_OBJDIR}/${AFS_SYSNAME}/dest"
 fi
 ])
diff --git a/src/cf/topdirs.m4 b/src/cf/topdirs.m4
index c24ff11540..c1f7ab8723 100644
--- a/src/cf/topdirs.m4
+++ b/src/cf/topdirs.m4
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ case $TOP_SRCDIR in
                 ;;
 esac
 
-TOP_OBJDIR="${SRCDIR_PARENT}"
-TOP_INCDIR="${SRCDIR_PARENT}/include"
-TOP_LIBDIR="${SRCDIR_PARENT}/lib"
+TOP_OBJDIR=`pwd`
+TOP_INCDIR="${TOP_OBJDIR}/include"
+TOP_LIBDIR="${TOP_OBJDIR}/lib"
 ])