diff --git a/travis/build-run.sh b/travis/build-run.sh
index 6b6a31d..723ea31 100755
--- a/travis/build-run.sh
+++ b/travis/build-run.sh
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ case "$MPI_IMPL" in
         # this is missing with Mac build it seems
         #ompi_info --arch --config
         mpicc --showme:command
+        # see https://github.com/open-mpi/ompi/issues/2956
+        export TMPDIR=/tmp
         ;;
 esac