diff -Naur a/bin/elasticsearch-env b/bin/elasticsearch-env
--- a/bin/elasticsearch-env	2017-12-12 13:31:51.000000000 +0100
+++ b/bin/elasticsearch-env	2017-12-18 19:51:12.282809695 +0100
@@ -19,18 +19,10 @@
   fi
 done
 
-# determine Elasticsearch home; to do this, we strip from the path until we find
-# bin, and then strip bin (there is an assumption here that there is no nested
-# directory under bin also named bin)
-ES_HOME=`dirname "$SCRIPT"`
-
-# now make ES_HOME absolute
-ES_HOME=`cd "$ES_HOME"; pwd`
-
-while [ "`basename "$ES_HOME"`" != "bin" ]; do
-  ES_HOME=`dirname "$ES_HOME"`
-done
-ES_HOME=`dirname "$ES_HOME"`
+if [ -z "$ES_HOME" ]; then
+    echo "You must set the ES_HOME var" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 # now set the classpath
 ES_CLASSPATH="$ES_HOME/lib/*"