diff --git a/dev-python/pyxattr/pyxattr-0.6.0-r1.ebuild b/dev-python/pyxattr/pyxattr-0.6.0-r1.ebuild
index 0f47e843d3e35..eab5d45fc294e 100644
--- a/dev-python/pyxattr/pyxattr-0.6.0-r1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/pyxattr/pyxattr-0.6.0-r1.ebuild
@@ -42,12 +42,20 @@ python_compile_all() {
 src_test() {
 	# Perform the tests in /var/tmp; that location is more likely
 	# to have xattr support than /tmp which is often tmpfs.
-	local -x TEST_DIR=/var/tmp
+	local -x TEST_DIR="${TEST_DIR:-/var/tmp}"
 	# Ignore selinux attributes by default, bug #503946.
-	local -x TEST_IGNORE_XATTRS="security.selinux"
+	local -x TEST_IGNORE_XATTRS="${TEST_IGNORE_XATTRS:-security.selinux}"
 
-	einfo 'Please note that the tests fail if xattrs are not supported'
-	einfo 'by the filesystem used for /var/tmp.'
+	einfo "Please note that the tests fail if xattrs are not supported"
+	einfo "by the filesystem used for ${TEST_DIR}."
+	einfo
+	einfo "The location for tests can be overriden using TEST_DIR variable:"
+	einfo "  $ export TEST_DIR=/my/test/place"
+	einfo
+	einfo "Additionally, TEST_IGNORE_XATTRS can be set to control which"
+	einfo "external attributes are ignored by the tests."
+	einfo "See https://bugs.gentoo.org/503946 for details."
+	einfo
 	distutils-r1_src_test
 }