diff --git a/t/t0000-basic.sh b/t/t0000-basic.sh
index ccb5435b2a..741b6b6d16 100755
--- a/t/t0000-basic.sh
+++ b/t/t0000-basic.sh
@@ -18,16 +18,6 @@ swapping compression and hashing order, the person who is making the
 modification *should* take notice and update the test vectors here.
 '
 
-################################################################
-# It appears that people try to run tests without building...
-
-../git >/dev/null
-if test $? != 1
-then
-	echo >&2 'You do not seem to have built git yet.'
-	exit 1
-fi
-
 . ./test-lib.sh
 
 ################################################################
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index 78c428619e..e823d86e41 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -51,6 +51,15 @@ then
 fi
 GIT_BUILD_DIR="$TEST_DIRECTORY"/..
 
+################################################################
+# It appears that people try to run tests without building...
+"$GIT_BUILD_DIR/git" >/dev/null
+if test $? != 1
+then
+	echo >&2 'error: you do not seem to have built git yet.'
+	exit 1
+fi
+
 . "$GIT_BUILD_DIR"/GIT-BUILD-OPTIONS
 export PERL_PATH SHELL_PATH