diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8d5457d38..020324563 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1 @@
-test/pagespeed_test.conf
+test/tmp
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 85ca4833c..6fb7a5d8f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -213,13 +213,12 @@ Then run:
       primary_port \
       secondary_port \
       mod_pagespeed_dir \
-      file_cache_path \
       nginx_executable_path
 
 For example:
 
     $ test/nginx_system_test.sh 8050 8051 /path/to/mod_pagespeed \
-        /path/to/ngx_pagespeed_cache /path/to/sbin/nginx
+        /path/to/sbin/nginx
 
 This should print out a lot of lines like:
 
diff --git a/test/nginx_system_test.sh b/test/nginx_system_test.sh
index c86ccbfb7..b7af4368d 100755
--- a/test/nginx_system_test.sh
+++ b/test/nginx_system_test.sh
@@ -25,25 +25,21 @@
 # Exits with status 2 if command line args are wrong.
 #
 # Usage:
-#   ./ngx_system_test.sh primary_port secondary_port \
-#                        mod_pagespeed_dir file_cache_path
-#   for example:
-#     ./ngx_system_test.sh 8050 8051 \
-#         /path/to/mod_pagespeed \
-#         /path.to/ngx_pagespeed_cache
+#   ./ngx_system_test.sh primary_port secondary_port mod_pagespeed_dir
+# Example:
+#   ./ngx_system_test.sh 8050 8051 /path/to/mod_pagespeed
 #
 
-if [ "$#" -ne 5 ] ; then
+if [ "$#" -ne 4 ] ; then
   echo "Usage: $0 primary_port secondary_port mod_pagespeed_dir"
-  echo "  file_cache_path nginx_executable"
-  exit 1
+  echo "  nginx_executable"
+  exit 2
 fi
 
 PRIMARY_PORT="$1"
 SECONDARY_PORT="$2"
 MOD_PAGESPEED_DIR="$3"
-FILE_CACHE_PATH="$4"
-NGINX_EXECUTABLE="$5"
+NGINX_EXECUTABLE="$4"
 
 PRIMARY_HOSTNAME="localhost:$PRIMARY_PORT"
 SECONDARY_HOSTNAME="localhost:$SECONDARY_PORT"
@@ -54,7 +50,7 @@ SERVER_ROOT="$MOD_PAGESPEED_DIR/src/install/"
 # them.
 function handle_failure_simple() {
   echo "FAIL"
-  exit 2
+  exit 1
 }
 function check_simple() {
   echo "     check" "$@"
@@ -67,9 +63,19 @@ function check_not_simple() {
 
 this_dir="$( cd $(dirname "$0") && pwd)"
 
+# stop nginx
+killall nginx
+
+TEST_TMP="$this_dir/tmp"
+rm -r "$TEST_TMP"
+check_simple mkdir "$TEST_TMP"
+FILE_CACHE="$TEST_TMP/file-cache/"
+check_simple mkdir "$FILE_CACHE"
+
+
 # set up the config file for the test
-PAGESPEED_CONF="$this_dir/pagespeed_test.conf"
-PAGESPEED_CONF_TEMPLATE="$PAGESPEED_CONF.template"
+PAGESPEED_CONF="$TEST_TMP/pagespeed_test.conf"
+PAGESPEED_CONF_TEMPLATE="$this_dir/pagespeed_test.conf.template"
 # check for config file template
 check_simple test -e "$PAGESPEED_CONF_TEMPLATE"
 # create PAGESPEED_CONF by substituting on PAGESPEED_CONF_TEMPLATE
@@ -78,7 +84,8 @@ This file is automatically generated from $PAGESPEED_CONF_TEMPLATE"
 by nginx_system_test.sh; don't edit here."
 EOF
 cat $PAGESPEED_CONF_TEMPLATE \
-  | sed 's#@@FILE_CACHE_PATH@@#'"$FILE_CACHE_PATH/"'#' \
+  | sed 's#@@TEST_TMP@@#'"$TEST_TMP/"'#' \
+  | sed 's#@@FILE_CACHE@@#'"$FILE_CACHE/"'#' \
   | sed 's#@@SERVER_ROOT@@#'"$SERVER_ROOT"'#' \
   | sed 's#@@PRIMARY_PORT@@#'"$PRIMARY_PORT"'#' \
   | sed 's#@@SECONDARY_PORT@@#'"$SECONDARY_PORT"'#' \
@@ -86,9 +93,7 @@ cat $PAGESPEED_CONF_TEMPLATE \
 # make sure we substituted all the variables
 check_not_simple grep @@ $PAGESPEED_CONF
 
-# restart nginx with new config
-killall nginx
-sleep .1
+# start nginx with new config
 check_simple "$NGINX_EXECUTABLE" -c "$PAGESPEED_CONF"
 
 # run generic system tests
diff --git a/test/pagespeed_test.conf.template b/test/pagespeed_test.conf.template
index 6f131466e..e976b1b68 100644
--- a/test/pagespeed_test.conf.template
+++ b/test/pagespeed_test.conf.template
@@ -1,20 +1,14 @@
-# nginx_system_test.sh makes a few substitutions to this file to generate
-# pagespeed_test.conf
+# nginx_system_test.sh makes a few substitutions to pagespeed_test.conf.template
+# file to generate @@TEST_TMP@@/pagespeed_test.conf
 
-#user  nobody;
 worker_processes  1;
 
 # for debugging
 #daemon off;
 #master_process off;
 
-#error_log  logs/error.log;
-#error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
-#error_log  logs/error.log  info;
-error_log  logs/error.log  debug;
-
-#pid        logs/nginx.pid;
-
+error_log "@@TEST_TMP@@/error.log" debug;
+pid "@@TEST_TMP@@/nginx.pid";
 
 events {
   worker_connections  1024;
@@ -22,13 +16,14 @@ events {
 
 
 http {
+  access_log "@@TEST_TMP@@/access.log";
 
   root "@@SERVER_ROOT@@";
 
   server {
     listen       @@PRIMARY_PORT@@;
     server_name  localhost;
-    pagespeed FileCachePath "@@FILE_CACHE_PATH@@";
+    pagespeed FileCachePath "@@FILE_CACHE@@";
 
     # uncomment the following two lines if you're testing memcached
     #pagespeed MemcachedServers "localhost:11211";