diff --git a/pre-inst-guile.in b/pre-inst-guile.in
index 8ed55faf4..206eab174 100644
--- a/pre-inst-guile.in
+++ b/pre-inst-guile.in
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
 subdirs_with_ltlibs="srfi guile-readline"       # maintain me
 
 # env (set by configure)
-top_srcdir=`(cd "@top_srcdir@" && pwd)`
+top_srcdir="@top_srcdir_absolute@"
 top_builddir="@top_builddir_absolute@"
 
 [ x"$top_srcdir"   = x -o ! -d "$top_srcdir" -o \