diff --git a/cmake/hdf5.cmake b/cmake/hdf5.cmake
index 527f0ddb..c9c59902 100644
--- a/cmake/hdf5.cmake
+++ b/cmake/hdf5.cmake
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ message(STATUS "HDF5 library: ${HDF5_LIBRARIES}")
 set(CMAKE_REQUIRED_INCLUDES ${HDF5_INCLUDE_DIRS})
 set(CMAKE_REQUIRED_LIBRARIES ${HDF5_LIBRARIES})
 
+set(ENV{BINDIR} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
+
 include(CheckFortranSourceCompiles)
 file(READ ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/tests/test_minimal.f90 _code)
 check_fortran_source_compiles(${_code} HDF5_compiles_ok SRC_EXT f90)
diff --git a/src/tests/test_minimal.f90 b/src/tests/test_minimal.f90
index a4d2bf85..5beb754d 100644
--- a/src/tests/test_minimal.f90
+++ b/src/tests/test_minimal.f90
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ program test_minimal
 integer :: i,l
 
 call get_command_argument(1, argv, length=l, status=i)
-if (i /= 0 .or. l == 0) error stop 'specify path'
+if (i /= 0 .or. l == 0) call get_environment_variable("BINDIR", argv, length=l, status=i)
+if (i /= 0 .or. l == 0) argv = '.'
+
 filename = trim(argv) // '/junk_minimal.h5'
 print *, 'test path: ', filename