diff --git a/mktemp.c b/mktemp.c
index f5a0be5..8416a01 100644
--- a/mktemp.c
+++ b/mktemp.c
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ int
 main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
 	char *template = "tmp.XXXXXXXXXX";
-	char *tmpdir = "/tmp";
+	char *tmpdir = "/tmp", *p;
 	char tmppath[PATH_MAX];
 	int fd;
 
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	else if (argc == 1)
 		template = argv[0];
 
+	if ((p = getenv("TMPDIR")))
+		tmpdir = p;
+
 	snprintf(tmppath, sizeof(tmppath), "%s/%s", tmpdir, template);
 	if (dflag) {
 		if (!mkdtemp(tmppath)) {