diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 0f42f88..5dd0e40 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -64,16 +64,16 @@ CONFFILE = $(SYSCONFDIR)/mdadm.conf
 CONFFILE2 = $(SYSCONFDIR)/mdadm/mdadm.conf
 MAILCMD =/usr/sbin/sendmail -t
 CONFFILEFLAGS = -DCONFFILE=\"$(CONFFILE)\" -DCONFFILE2=\"$(CONFFILE2)\"
-# ALT_RUN should be somewhere that persists across the pivotroot
-# from early boot to late boot.
+# Both MAP_DIR and MDMON_DIR should be somewhere that persists across the
+# pivotroot from early boot to late boot.
 # If you don't have /lib/init/rw you might want to use /dev/.something
-#  e.g. make ALT_RUN=/dev/.mdadm
-ALT_RUN = /lib/init/rw/mdadm
-ALT_MAPFILE = map
-VAR_RUN = /var/run/mdadm
-ALTFLAGS = -DALT_RUN=\"$(ALT_RUN)\" -DALT_MAPFILE=\"$(ALT_MAPFILE)\"
-VARFLAGS = -DVAR_RUN=\"$(VAR_RUN)\"
-CFLAGS = $(CWFLAGS) $(CXFLAGS) -DSendmail=\""$(MAILCMD)"\" $(CONFFILEFLAGS) $(ALTFLAGS) $(VARFLAGS)
+#  e.g. make MAP_DIR=/dev/.mdadm
+MAP_DIR = /lib/init/rw/mdadm
+MAP_FILE = map
+MDMON_DIR = /lib/init/rw/mdmon
+DIRFLAGS = -DMAP_DIR=\"$(MAP_DIR)\" -DMAP_FILE=\"$(MAP_FILE)\"
+DIRFLAGS += -DMDMON_DIR=\"$(MDMON_DIR)\"
+CFLAGS = $(CWFLAGS) $(CXFLAGS) -DSendmail=\""$(MAILCMD)"\" $(CONFFILEFLAGS) $(DIRFLAGS)
 
 # The glibc TLS ABI requires applications that call clone(2) to set up
 # TLS data structures, use pthreads until mdmon implements this support
diff --git a/mapfile.c b/mapfile.c
index ffe8e16..79a6bd8 100644
--- a/mapfile.c
+++ b/mapfile.c
@@ -52,28 +52,26 @@
 #include	<ctype.h>
 
 #define mapnames(base) { base, base ".new", base ".lock"}
-char *mapname[3][3] = {
-	mapnames(VAR_RUN "/map"),
-	mapnames("/var/run/mdadm.map"),
-	mapnames(ALT_RUN "/" ALT_MAPFILE)
+char *mapname[2][3] = {
+	mapnames(MAP_DIR "/" MAP_FILE),
+	mapnames("/var/run/mdadm.map")
 };
-char *mapdir[3] = { VAR_RUN, NULL, ALT_RUN };
+char *mapdir[2] = { MAP_DIR, NULL };
 
-int mapmode[3] = { O_RDONLY, O_RDWR|O_CREAT, O_RDWR|O_CREAT | O_TRUNC };
+int mapmode[3] = { O_RDONLY, O_RDWR|O_CREAT, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC };
 char *mapsmode[3] = { "r", "w", "w"};
 
 FILE *open_map(int modenum, int *choice)
 {
 	int i;
 
-	for (i = 0 ; i < 3 ; i++) {
+	for (i = 0 ; i < 2 ; i++) {
 		int fd;
-		if ((mapmode[modenum] & O_CREAT) &&
-		    mapdir[modenum])
+		if ((mapmode[modenum] & O_CREAT) && mapdir[i])
 			/* Attempt to create directory, don't worry about
 			 * failure.
 			 */
-			mkdir(mapdir[modenum], 0755);
+			mkdir(mapdir[i], 0755);
 		fd = open(mapname[i][modenum], mapmode[modenum], 0600);
 		if (fd >= 0) {
 			*choice = i;
diff --git a/mdadm.h b/mdadm.h
index f1fe24f..b95c9c9 100644
--- a/mdadm.h
+++ b/mdadm.h
@@ -68,28 +68,30 @@ extern __off64_t lseek64 __P ((int __fd, __off64_t __offset, int __whence));
 #define DEFAULT_BITMAP_DELAY 5
 #define DEFAULT_MAX_WRITE_BEHIND 256
 
-/* VAR_RUN is where pid and socket files used for communicating
- * with mdmon normally live.  It should be /var/run, but if
- * it is too hard to remount /var/run as read-only rather than
- * unmounting it at shutdown time, then it should be
- * redefined to some place that comfortably persists until
- * final shutdown, possibly in /dev if that is a tmpfs.
- * Note: VAR_RUN does not need to be writable at shutdown,
- * only during boot when "mdmon --takeover" is run.
- */
-#ifndef VAR_RUN
-#define VAR_RUN "/var/run/mdadm"
-#endif /* VAR_RUN */
-/* ALT_RUN should be somewhere that persists across the pivotroot
+/* MAP_DIR should be somewhere that persists across the pivotroot
  * from early boot to late boot.
  * If you don't have /lib/init/rw you might want to use /dev/.something
  */
-#ifndef ALT_RUN
-#define ALT_RUN "/lib/init/rw/mdadm"
-#endif /* ALT_RUN */
-#ifndef ALT_MAPFILE
-#define ALT_MAPFILE "map"
-#endif /* ALT_MAPFILE */
+#ifndef MAP_DIR
+#define MAP_DIR "/lib/init/rw/mdadm"
+#endif /* MAP_DIR */
+/* MAP_FILE is what we name the map file we put in MAP_DIR, in case you
+ * want something other than the default of "map"
+ */
+#ifndef MAP_FILE
+#define MAP_FILE "map"
+#endif /* MAP_FILE */
+/* MDMON_DIR is where pid and socket files used for communicating
+ * with mdmon normally live.  It *should* be /var/run, but when
+ * mdmon is needed at early boot then it needs to write there prior
+ * to /var/run being mounted read/write, and it also then needs to
+ * persist beyond when /var/run is mounter read-only.  So, to be
+ * safe, the default is somewhere that is read/write early in the
+ * boot process and stays up as long as possible during shutdown.
+ */
+#ifndef MDMON_DIR
+#define MDMON_DIR "/lib/init/rw/mdmon"
+#endif /* MDMON_DIR */
 
 #include	"md_u.h"
 #include	"md_p.h"
@@ -934,7 +936,6 @@ int is_container_active(char *devname);
 extern int open_subarray(char *dev, struct supertype *st, int quiet);
 extern struct superswitch *version_to_superswitch(char *vers);
 
-extern char *pid_dir;
 extern int mdmon_running(int devnum);
 extern int mdmon_pid(int devnum);
 extern int check_env(char *name);
diff --git a/mdmon.c b/mdmon.c
index c4c0181..75fdcaa 100644
--- a/mdmon.c
+++ b/mdmon.c
@@ -147,10 +147,10 @@ static int make_pidfile(char *devname)
 	int fd;
 	int n;
 
-	if (mkdir(pid_dir, 0700) < 0 &&
+	if (mkdir(MDMON_DIR, 0755) < 0 &&
 	    errno != EEXIST)
 		return -errno;
-	sprintf(path, "%s/%s.pid", pid_dir, devname);
+	sprintf(path, "%s/%s.pid", MDMON_DIR, devname);
 
 	fd = open(path, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600);
 	if (fd < 0)
@@ -204,13 +204,10 @@ void remove_pidfile(char *devname)
 {
 	char buf[100];
 
-	sprintf(buf, "%s/%s.pid", pid_dir, devname);
+	sprintf(buf, "%s/%s.pid", MDMON_DIR, devname);
 	unlink(buf);
-	sprintf(buf, "%s/%s.sock", pid_dir, devname);
+	sprintf(buf, "%s/%s.sock", MDMON_DIR, devname);
 	unlink(buf);
-	if (strcmp(pid_dir, ALT_RUN) == 0)
-		/* try to clean up when we are finished with this dir */
-		rmdir(pid_dir);
 }
 
 static int make_control_sock(char *devname)
@@ -223,7 +220,7 @@ static int make_control_sock(char *devname)
 	if (sigterm)
 		return -1;
 
-	sprintf(path, "%s/%s.sock", pid_dir, devname);
+	sprintf(path, "%s/%s.sock", MDMON_DIR, devname);
 	unlink(path);
 	sfd = socket(PF_LOCAL, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
 	if (sfd < 0)
@@ -459,12 +456,7 @@ static int mdmon(char *devname, int devnum, int must_fork, int takeover)
 	act.sa_handler = SIG_IGN;
 	sigaction(SIGPIPE, &act, NULL);
 
-	pid_dir = VAR_RUN;
 	victim = mdmon_pid(container->devnum);
-	if (victim < 0) {
-		pid_dir = ALT_RUN;
-		victim = mdmon_pid(container->devnum);
-	}
 	if (victim >= 0)
 		victim_sock = connect_monitor(container->devname);
 
@@ -488,16 +480,8 @@ static int mdmon(char *devname, int devnum, int must_fork, int takeover)
 	 */
 	if (victim > 0)
 		remove_pidfile(devname);
-	pid_dir = VAR_RUN;
 	if (make_pidfile(devname) < 0) {
-		/* Try the alternate */
-		pid_dir = ALT_RUN;
-		if (make_pidfile(devname) < 0) {
-			fprintf(stderr, "mdmon: Neither %s nor %s are writable\n"
-				"       cannot create .pid or .sock files.  Aborting\n",
-				VAR_RUN, ALT_RUN);
-			exit(3);
-		}
+		exit(3);
 	}
 	container->sock = make_control_sock(devname);
 
diff --git a/msg.c b/msg.c
index d2d8445..aabfa8f 100644
--- a/msg.c
+++ b/msg.c
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ int connect_monitor(char *devname)
 	int pos;
 	char *c;
 
-	pos = sprintf(path, "%s/", pid_dir);
+	pos = sprintf(path, "%s/", MDMON_DIR);
 	if (is_subarray(devname)) {
 		devname++;
 		c = strchr(devname, '/');
diff --git a/util.c b/util.c
index 1ce6a7a..8935ceb 100644
--- a/util.c
+++ b/util.c
@@ -1666,8 +1666,6 @@ int fd2devnum(int fd)
 	return NoMdDev;
 }
 
-char *pid_dir = VAR_RUN;
-
 int mdmon_pid(int devnum)
 {
 	char path[100];
@@ -1676,7 +1674,7 @@ int mdmon_pid(int devnum)
 	int n;
 	char *devname = devnum2devname(devnum);
 
-	sprintf(path, "%s/%s.pid", pid_dir, devname);
+	sprintf(path, "%s/%s.pid", MDMON_DIR, devname);
 	free(devname);
 
 	fd = open(path, O_RDONLY | O_NOATIME, 0);