diff --git a/indra/develop.py b/indra/develop.py
index 1398bca935295f06bd5d92758791eb6ab5913228..345dd1cb9bfc6dc9d2821110898224ecceaf39d3 100755
--- a/indra/develop.py
+++ b/indra/develop.py
@@ -381,12 +381,6 @@ def mk_distcc_hosts(basename, range, num_cpus):
             cpus += 2 * len(stations)
             return ' '.join(hosts), cpus
 
-        if os.getenv('DISTCC_DIR') is None:
-            distcc_dir = os.path.join(getcwd(), '.distcc')
-            if not os.path.exists(distcc_dir):
-                os.mkdir(distcc_dir)
-            os.environ['DISTCC_DIR'] = distcc_dir
- 
         if job_count is None:
             hosts, job_count = count_distcc_hosts()
             if hosts == 1:
@@ -710,6 +704,15 @@ def cmake_commandline(self, src_dir, build_dir, opts, simple):
 '''
 
 def main(arguments):
+    if os.getenv('DISTCC_DIR') is None:
+        distcc_dir = os.path.join(getcwd(), '.distcc')
+        if not os.path.exists(distcc_dir):
+            os.mkdir(distcc_dir)
+        print "setting DISTCC_DIR to %s" % distcc_dir
+        os.environ['DISTCC_DIR'] = distcc_dir
+    else:
+        print "DISTCC_DIR is set to %s" % os.getenv('DISTCC_DIR')
+ 
     setup = setup_platform[sys.platform]()
     try:
         opts, args = getopt.getopt(