diff --git a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm
index 0d7e198d4..39dcf0733 100644
--- a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm
+++ b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm
@@ -5925,7 +5925,7 @@ sub get_params( $ ) {
 		#
 		delete $params{$_};
 	    } else {
-		unless ( $_ eq 'SHOREWALL_INIT_SCRIPT' || $_ eq 'SW_LOGGERTAG' ) {
+		unless ( $_ eq 'SHOREWALL_INIT_SCRIPT' || $_ eq 'SW_LOGGERTAG' || $_ eq 'SW_CONFDIR' ) {
 		    fatal_error "The variable name $_ is reserved and may not be set in the params file"
 			if /^SW_/ || /^SHOREWALL_/ || ( exists $config{$_} && ! exists $ENV{$_} ) || exists $reserved{$_};
 		}
diff --git a/Shorewall/lib.cli-std b/Shorewall/lib.cli-std
index 3f27b45cd..df8ee8185 100644
--- a/Shorewall/lib.cli-std
+++ b/Shorewall/lib.cli-std
@@ -456,6 +456,16 @@ compiler() {
 
     ensure_root
     #
+    # Let params and the compiler know the base configuration directory
+    #
+    if [ -n "$g_shorewalldir" ]; then
+	SW_CONFDIR="$g_shorewalldir"
+    else
+	SW_CONFDIR="$g_confdir"
+    fi
+
+    export SW_CONFDIR
+    #
     # We've now set g_shorewalldir so recalculate CONFIG_PATH
     #
     [ -n "$g_haveconfig" ] || ensure_config_path