diff --git a/alibuild_helpers/build.py b/alibuild_helpers/build.py
index 925a7c3e..ff5b49cd 100644
--- a/alibuild_helpers/build.py
+++ b/alibuild_helpers/build.py
@@ -961,7 +961,7 @@ def build_or_unpack_package(package, specs, args):
             "provenance": create_provenance_info(spec["package"], specs, args),
             "initdotsh_deps": generate_initdotsh(package, specs, args.architecture, post_build=False),
             "initdotsh_full": generate_initdotsh(package, specs, args.architecture, post_build=True),
-            "workDir": args.workDir,
+            "workDir": os.path.abspath(args.workDir),
             "configDir": abspath(args.configDir),
             "incremental_recipe": spec.get("incremental_recipe", ":"),
             "sourceDir": (dirname(source) + "/") if source else "",
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index f28ac90a..219dcb57 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -101,9 +101,9 @@ commands =
 
     # Make sure that etc/profile.d/init.sh is re-written properly, even if the package build overwrites it.
     # In particular, AliEn-Runtime does this, so we must handle this.
-    sh -c 'coverage run --source={toxinidir} -a {toxinidir}/aliBuild -c {toxinidir}/tests/testdist build clobber-initdotsh -a {env:ARCHITECTURE} --no-system --no-remote-store >&2 && WORK_DIR=$PWD/sw . sw/{env:ARCHITECTURE}/clobber-initdotsh/1-local1/etc/profile.d/init.sh'
+    sh -c 'coverage run --source={toxinidir} -a {toxinidir}/aliBuild -c {toxinidir}/tests/testdist --debug build clobber-initdotsh -a {env:ARCHITECTURE} --no-system --no-remote-store >&2 && WORK_DIR=$PWD/sw . sw/{env:ARCHITECTURE}/clobber-initdotsh/1-local1/etc/profile.d/init.sh'
     # AliRoot-OCDB deletes $INSTALLROOT/etc/ during build, so make sure we can handle that fine too.
-    sh -c 'coverage run --source={toxinidir} -a {toxinidir}/aliBuild -c {toxinidir}/tests/testdist build delete-etc -a {env:ARCHITECTURE} --no-system --no-remote-store >&2 && WORK_DIR=$PWD/sw . sw/{env:ARCHITECTURE}/delete-etc/1-local1/etc/profile.d/init.sh'
+    sh -c 'coverage run --source={toxinidir} -a {toxinidir}/aliBuild -c {toxinidir}/tests/testdist --debug build delete-etc -a {env:ARCHITECTURE} --no-system --no-remote-store >&2 && WORK_DIR=$PWD/sw . sw/{env:ARCHITECTURE}/delete-etc/1-local1/etc/profile.d/init.sh'
 
     coverage run --source={toxinidir} -a {toxinidir}/aliBuild build zlib -a {env:ARCHITECTURE} --no-system --disable GCC-Toolchain
     alienv -a {env:ARCHITECTURE} q