diff --git a/tools/run_tests.sh b/tools/run_tests.sh
index f6a7ba59..427413be 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests.sh
@@ -2,14 +2,21 @@
 # stop on failure
 set -e
 BACKEND="${1}"
-[ "${WEBOOB_WORKDIR}" != "" ] || WEBOOB_WORKDIR="${HOME}/.weboob"
-[ "${TMPDIR}" != "" ] || TMPDIR="/tmp"
+if [ -z "${WEBOOB_WORKDIR}" ]; then
+    # use the old workdir by default
+    WEBOOB_WORKDIR="${HOME}/.weboob"
+    # but if we can find a valid xdg workdir, switch to it
+    [ "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}" != "" ] || XDG_CONFIG_HOME="${HOME}/.config"
+    [ -d "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/weboob" ] && WEBOOB_WORKDIR="${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/weboob"
+fi
+[ -z "${TMPDIR}" ] && TMPDIR="/tmp"
 
 # do not allow undefined variables anymore
 set -u
 WEBOOB_TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR}/weboob_test.XXXXX")
 cp "${WEBOOB_WORKDIR}/backends" "${WEBOOB_TMPDIR}/"
 
+# path to sources
 WEBOOB_DIR=$(readlink -e $(dirname $0)/..)
 echo "file://$WEBOOB_DIR/modules" > "${WEBOOB_TMPDIR}/sources.list"
 
@@ -18,7 +25,7 @@ export WEBOOB_WORKDIR="${WEBOOB_TMPDIR}"
 
 # allow failing commands past this point
 set +e
-if [ "${BACKEND}" != "" ]; then
+if [ -n "${BACKEND}" ]; then
     nosetests -sv "${WEBOOB_DIR}/modules/${BACKEND}"
 else
     find "${WEBOOB_DIR}/weboob" "${WEBOOB_DIR}/modules" -name test.py | xargs nosetests -sv