diff --git a/test/py/TestSyntax.py b/test/py/TestSyntax.py
index df67d48..9f71cf5 100755
--- a/test/py/TestSyntax.py
+++ b/test/py/TestSyntax.py
@@ -20,7 +20,12 @@
 #
 
 import sys, glob
-sys.path.insert(0, './gen-py')
+from optparse import OptionParser
+parser = OptionParser()
+parser.add_option('--genpydir', type='string', dest='genpydir', default='gen-py')
+options, args = parser.parse_args()
+del sys.argv[1:] # clean up hack so unittest doesn't complain
+sys.path.insert(0, options.genpydir)
 sys.path.insert(0, glob.glob('../../lib/py/build/lib.*')[0])
 
 # Just import these generated files to make sure they are syntactically valid