diff --git a/tests/atlocal.in b/tests/atlocal.in
index f259ce54e1..227718feed 100644
--- a/tests/atlocal.in
+++ b/tests/atlocal.in
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-RPMTREE=/
-
 RPMLIBDIR="@CMAKE_INSTALL_FULL_LIBDIR@"
 export RPMLIBDIR
 
@@ -7,7 +5,8 @@ HAVE_UNSHARE=@HAVE_UNSHARE@
 PYTHON=@PYTHON@
 PGP=@PGP@
 
-RPMTEST="$RPMTREE"
+RPMTREE=${RPMTREE:-/}
+RPMTEST=/
 RPMDATA="/data/"
 
 RPM_CONFIGDIR_PATH="@RPM_CONFIGDIR@"
diff --git a/tests/mktree.fedora b/tests/mktree.fedora
index 048f55182b..33cf1297f5 100755
--- a/tests/mktree.fedora
+++ b/tests/mktree.fedora
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ case $CMD in
     ;;
     check)
         mount_tree
-        snapshot exec --tmpfs /tmp --bind $PWD $PWD \
+        snapshot exec --tmpfs /tmp --bind $PWD $PWD --setenv RPMTREE $RPMTREE \
                       sh -c 'cd '$PWD' && exec ./rpmtests "$@"' rpmtests "$@"
     ;;
     reset)
diff --git a/tests/mktree.podman b/tests/mktree.podman
index 7ee42efa87..a44e51f0ac 100755
--- a/tests/mktree.podman
+++ b/tests/mktree.podman
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ case $CMD in
         esac
         $PODMAN run --privileged -it --rm --read-only --tmpfs /tmp \
                     -v /srv --workdir /srv -e ROOTLESS=$ROOTLESS \
-                    $OPTS $IMAGE mktree check "$@"
+                    --env RPMTREE=/ $OPTS $IMAGE mktree check "$@"
     ;;
     reset)
         $PODMAN stop $NAME >/dev/null &&