diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8a5270973e..c658613560 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 /config-host.*
 /config-target.*
 /config.status
+/config-temp
 /trace/generated-tracers.h
 /trace/generated-tracers.c
 /trace/generated-tracers-dtrace.h
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 678a1061ad..cde432520d 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2,26 +2,28 @@
 #
 # qemu configure script (c) 2003 Fabrice Bellard
 #
-# set temporary file name
-if test ! -z "$TMPDIR" ; then
-    TMPDIR1="${TMPDIR}"
-elif test ! -z "$TEMPDIR" ; then
-    TMPDIR1="${TEMPDIR}"
-else
-    TMPDIR1="/tmp"
+
+# Temporary directory used for files created while
+# configure runs. Since it is in the build directory
+# we can safely blow away any previous version of it
+# (and we need not jump through hoops to try to delete
+# it when configure exits.)
+TMPDIR1="config-temp"
+rm -rf "${TMPDIR1}"
+mkdir -p "${TMPDIR1}"
+if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+    echo "ERROR: failed to create temporary directory"
+    exit 1
 fi
 
-TMPC="${TMPDIR1}/qemu-conf-${RANDOM}-$$-${RANDOM}.c"
-TMPB="qemu-conf-${RANDOM}-$$-${RANDOM}"
+TMPB="qemu-conf"
+TMPC="${TMPDIR1}/${TMPB}.c"
 TMPO="${TMPDIR1}/${TMPB}.o"
 TMPCXX="${TMPDIR1}/${TMPB}.cxx"
 TMPL="${TMPDIR1}/${TMPB}.lo"
 TMPA="${TMPDIR1}/lib${TMPB}.la"
-TMPE="${TMPDIR1}/qemu-conf-${RANDOM}-$$-${RANDOM}.exe"
+TMPE="${TMPDIR1}/${TMPB}.exe"
 
-# NB: do not call "exit" in the trap handler; this is buggy with some shells;
-# see <1285349658-3122-1-git-send-email-loic.minier@linaro.org>
-trap "rm -f $TMPC $TMPO $TMPCXX $TMPE" EXIT INT QUIT TERM
 rm -f config.log
 
 # Print a helpful header at the top of config.log
@@ -5235,3 +5237,4 @@ printf " '%s'" "$0" "$@" >>config.status
 echo >>config.status
 chmod +x config.status
 
+rm -r "$TMPDIR1"