diff --git a/bin/ruby-local-exec b/bin/ruby-local-exec
index af7d7e1a..b1b5a5fa 100755
--- a/bin/ruby-local-exec
+++ b/bin/ruby-local-exec
@@ -13,11 +13,8 @@
 
 set -e
 
-cwd="$(pwd)"
-dirname="${1%/*}"
-
-cd "$dirname"
-export RBENV_VERSION="$(rbenv version-name)"
-cd "$cwd"
+if [ -z "$RBENV_DIR" ]; then
+  export RBENV_DIR="${1%/*}"
+fi
 
 exec ruby "$@"
diff --git a/libexec/rbenv b/libexec/rbenv
index 2c00d7d7..f6b07b92 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv
+++ b/libexec/rbenv
@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ else
 fi
 export RBENV_ROOT
 
+if [ -z "${RBENV_DIR}" ]; then
+  RBENV_DIR="$(pwd)"
+fi
+export RBENV_DIR
+
 
 shopt -s nullglob
 
diff --git a/libexec/rbenv-version-file b/libexec/rbenv-version-file
index eb72ec38..31b8670d 100755
--- a/libexec/rbenv-version-file
+++ b/libexec/rbenv-version-file
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 set -e
 [ -n "$RBENV_DEBUG" ] && set -x
 
-root="$(pwd)"
+root="$RBENV_DIR"
 while [ -n "$root" ]; do
   if [ -e "${root}/.rbenv-version" ]; then
     echo "${root}/.rbenv-version"