diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 93b6db1c39..cba5976114 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2879,7 +2879,7 @@ if test "$mingw32" = "yes" ; then
     done
 fi
 
-confdir=$sysconfdir$confsuffix
+qemu_confdir=$sysconfdir$confsuffix
 
 tools=
 if test "$softmmu" = yes ; then
@@ -3025,7 +3025,7 @@ echo "mandir=$mandir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "datadir=$qemu_datadir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "sysconfdir=$sysconfdir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "docdir=$qemu_docdir" >> $config_host_mak
-echo "confdir=$confdir" >> $config_host_mak
+echo "confdir=$qemu_confdir" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "libexecdir=\${prefix}/libexec" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "CONFIG_QEMU_SHAREDIR=\"$prefix$datasuffix\"" >> $config_host_mak
 echo "CONFIG_QEMU_HELPERDIR=\"$prefix/libexec\"" >> $config_host_mak