diff --git a/scripts/bin/check-pie.sh b/scripts/bin/check-pie.sh
index 3eff38d42d..1116fabeed 100755
--- a/scripts/bin/check-pie.sh
+++ b/scripts/bin/check-pie.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # check-pie.sh - script to detect non-PIE binaries (which does not work on Android)
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/../..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 
 cd ${TERMUX_PREFIX}/bin
diff --git a/scripts/build-bootstraps.sh b/scripts/build-bootstraps.sh
index 7c5c5ca5e8..08e8823fff 100755
--- a/scripts/build-bootstraps.sh
+++ b/scripts/build-bootstraps.sh
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ version=0.1.0
 
 set -e
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 
 BOOTSTRAP_TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/bootstrap-tmp.XXXXXXXX")
diff --git a/scripts/generate-bootstraps.sh b/scripts/generate-bootstraps.sh
index 1d85d52434..1af1dfd354 100755
--- a/scripts/generate-bootstraps.sh
+++ b/scripts/generate-bootstraps.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 
 set -e
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 BOOTSTRAP_TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/bootstrap-tmp.XXXXXXXX")
 trap 'rm -rf $BOOTSTRAP_TMPDIR' EXIT
diff --git a/scripts/lint-packages.sh b/scripts/lint-packages.sh
index 65e7ccfcd1..ed8212ece6 100755
--- a/scripts/lint-packages.sh
+++ b/scripts/lint-packages.sh
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ lint_package() {
 		TERMUX_PKG_API_LEVEL=24
 
 		if [ -f "$REPO_DIR/scripts/properties.sh" ]; then
+			: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:=$REPO_DIR}"
 			. "$REPO_DIR/scripts/properties.sh"
 		fi
 
diff --git a/scripts/list-versions.sh b/scripts/list-versions.sh
index 31d6ce9cfb..ef5cbfcb3d 100755
--- a/scripts/list-versions.sh
+++ b/scripts/list-versions.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$SCRIPT_DIR/..")"}"
 . "$SCRIPT_DIR"/properties.sh
 
 check_package() { # path
diff --git a/scripts/properties.sh b/scripts/properties.sh
index 1e9452a4d2..046acc7dd8 100644
--- a/scripts/properties.sh
+++ b/scripts/properties.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 # coreutils and are clearly not a default part of most Linux installations,
 # or sourcing any other script in our build directories.
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:?TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR not set for properties.sh}"
+
 TERMUX_SDK_REVISION=9123335
 TERMUX_ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=33.0.1
 # when changing the above:
@@ -18,8 +20,6 @@ TERMUX_NDK_VERSION=$TERMUX_NDK_VERSION_NUM$TERMUX_NDK_REVISION
 # and update SHA256 sums in scripts/setup-android-sdk.sh
 # check all packages build and run correctly and bump if needed
 
-: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:=$(pwd)}"
-
 : "${TERMUX_JAVA_HOME:=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64}"
 export JAVA_HOME=${TERMUX_JAVA_HOME}
 
diff --git a/scripts/setup-android-sdk.sh b/scripts/setup-android-sdk.sh
index 7bb6359971..fc28210c09 100755
--- a/scripts/setup-android-sdk.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup-android-sdk.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 set -e -u
 
 : "${TERMUX_PKG_TMPDIR:="/tmp"}"
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 
 # Install desired parts of the Android SDK:
 . $(cd "$(dirname "$0")"; pwd)/properties.sh
diff --git a/scripts/setup-archlinux.sh b/scripts/setup-archlinux.sh
index fca629d12f..1113dc8e25 100755
--- a/scripts/setup-archlinux.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup-archlinux.sh
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ else
 fi
 $SUDO pacman -Syq --needed --noconfirm $PACKAGES
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 $SUDO mkdir -p $TERMUX_PREFIX
 $SUDO chown -R $(whoami) /data
diff --git a/scripts/setup-cgct.sh b/scripts/setup-cgct.sh
index fbf6efbab3..5d3d7fa93d 100755
--- a/scripts/setup-cgct.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup-cgct.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 # setup CGCT - Cross Gnu Compiler for Termux
 # compile glibc-based binaries for Termux
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/build/termux_download.sh
 
diff --git a/scripts/setup-termux-glibc.sh b/scripts/setup-termux-glibc.sh
index ef96c79b04..ac72ad87f4 100755
--- a/scripts/setup-termux-glibc.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup-termux-glibc.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 source "$TERMUX_PREFIX/bin/termux-setup-package-manager" || true
 
diff --git a/scripts/setup-termux.sh b/scripts/setup-termux.sh
index 426dba3213..26b25e36ef 100755
--- a/scripts/setup-termux.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup-termux.sh
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ PACKAGES+=" xmlto"                      # Needed by git's manpage generation
 PACKAGES+=" zip"
 
 # Definition of a package manager
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 source "$TERMUX_PREFIX/bin/termux-setup-package-manager" || true
 
diff --git a/scripts/setup-ubuntu.sh b/scripts/setup-ubuntu.sh
index b308222868..70222807f3 100755
--- a/scripts/setup-ubuntu.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup-ubuntu.sh
@@ -323,6 +323,7 @@ rm -f /tmp/py2-get-pip.py
 $SUDO locale-gen --purge en_US.UTF-8
 echo -e 'LANG="en_US.UTF-8"\nLANGUAGE="en_US:en"\n' | $SUDO tee -a /etc/default/locale
 
+: "${TERMUX_SCRIPTDIR:="$(realpath "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")/..")"}"
 . $(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")/properties.sh
 $SUDO mkdir -p $TERMUX_PREFIX
 $SUDO chown -R $(whoami) /data