diff -Naur a/bin/opensearch-env b/bin/opensearch-env
--- a/bin/opensearch-env	2017-12-12 13:31:51.000000000 +0100
+++ b/bin/opensearch-env	2017-12-18 19:51:12.282809695 +0100
@@ -19,18 +19,10 @@
   fi
 done
 
-# determine OpenSearch 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)
-OPENSEARCH_HOME=`dirname "$SCRIPT"`
-
-# now make OPENSEARCH_HOME absolute
-OPENSEARCH_HOME=`cd "$OPENSEARCH_HOME"; pwd`
-
-while [ "`basename "$OPENSEARCH_HOME"`" != "bin" ]; do
-  OPENSEARCH_HOME=`dirname "$OPENSEARCH_HOME"`
-done
-OPENSEARCH_HOME=`dirname "$OPENSEARCH_HOME"`
+if [ -z "$OPENSEARCH_HOME" ]; then
+    echo "You must set the OPENSEARCH_HOME var" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 # now set the classpath
 OPENSEARCH_CLASSPATH="$OPENSEARCH_HOME/lib/*"