diff --git a/lucene/common-build.xml b/lucene/common-build.xml
index f4ffe13f5a2..eee39cb525d 100644
--- a/lucene/common-build.xml
+++ b/lucene/common-build.xml
@@ -133,6 +133,7 @@
   <property name="build.dir" location="build"/>
   <!-- Needed in case a contrib needs the original build, also for compile-tools to be called from contrib -->
   <property name="common.build.dir" location="${common.dir}/build"/>
+  <property name="tests.lockdir" location="${common.build.dir}"/>
   <property name="dist.dir" location="dist"/>
   <property name="maven.dist.dir" location="dist/maven"/>
   <property name="m2.repository.url" value="file://${maven.dist.dir}"/>
@@ -546,6 +547,8 @@
 	
 	      <!-- allow tests to control debug prints -->
 	      <sysproperty key="tests.verbose" value="${tests.verbose}"/>
+              <!-- directory for formatter lock -->
+	      <sysproperty key="tests.lockdir" value="${tests.lockdir}"/>
               <!-- set the codec tests should run with -->
 	      <sysproperty key="tests.codec" value="${tests.codec}"/>
               <!-- set the codec provider tests should run with -->
diff --git a/lucene/src/test-framework/org/apache/lucene/util/LuceneJUnitResultFormatter.java b/lucene/src/test-framework/org/apache/lucene/util/LuceneJUnitResultFormatter.java
index a03f780dafc..c67b9bc4c66 100644
--- a/lucene/src/test-framework/org/apache/lucene/util/LuceneJUnitResultFormatter.java
+++ b/lucene/src/test-framework/org/apache/lucene/util/LuceneJUnitResultFormatter.java
@@ -66,7 +66,8 @@ public class LuceneJUnitResultFormatter implements JUnitResultFormatter {
   private static final org.apache.lucene.store.Lock lock;
 
   static {
-    File lockDir = new File(System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir"),
+    File lockDir = new File(
+        System.getProperty("tests.lockdir", System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir")),
         "lucene_junit_lock");
     lockDir.mkdirs();
     if (!lockDir.exists()) {