diff --git a/bitbake/bin/toaster b/bitbake/bin/toaster
index 359b23d6a5..de03099a68 100755
--- a/bitbake/bin/toaster
+++ b/bitbake/bin/toaster
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ fi
 # 4) pid's we need to clean up on exit/shutdown
 # note: for future. in order to make this an arbitrary directory, we need to
 # make sure that the toaster.sqlite file doesn't default to `pwd` like it currently does.
-export TOASTER_DIR=`pwd`
+export TOASTER_DIR=`dirname $BUILDDIR`
 
 # Determine the action. If specified by arguments, fine, if not, toggle it
 if [ "$1" = 'start' ] || [ "$1" = 'stop' ]; then