diff --git a/bin/elasticsearch b/bin/elasticsearch
index c7c9263..0fcecf6 100755
--- a/bin/elasticsearch
+++ b/bin/elasticsearch
@@ -76,7 +76,10 @@ while [ -h "$SCRIPT" ] ; do
 done
 
 # determine elasticsearch home
-ES_HOME=`dirname "$SCRIPT"`/..
+if [ -z "$ES_HOME" ]; then
+    echo "You must set the ES_HOME var" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 # make ELASTICSEARCH_HOME absolute
 ES_HOME=`cd "$ES_HOME"; pwd`
diff --git a/bin/plugin b/bin/plugin
index a8c796a..daf7b99 100755
--- a/bin/plugin
+++ b/bin/plugin
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@ while [ -h "$SCRIPT" ] ; do
 done
 
 # determine elasticsearch home
-ES_HOME=`dirname "$SCRIPT"`/..
+if [ -z "$ES_HOME" ]; then
+    echo "You must set the ES_HOME var" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 # make ELASTICSEARCH_HOME absolute
 ES_HOME=`cd "$ES_HOME"; pwd`
@@ -45,4 +48,4 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
   shift
 done
 
-exec "$JAVA" $JAVA_OPTS $ES_JAVA_OPTS -Xmx64m -Xms16m -Delasticsearch -Des.path.home="$ES_HOME" $properties -cp "$ES_HOME/lib/*" org.elasticsearch.plugins.PluginManager $args
+exec "$JAVA" $JAVA_OPTS $ES_JAVA_OPTS -Xmx64m -Xms16m -Delasticsearch -Des.path.home="$ES_HOME" $properties -cp "$ES_CLASSPATH/lib/*" org.elasticsearch.plugins.PluginManager $args