diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index deabdb7219..bb1821c38c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2296,7 +2296,7 @@ AC_SUBST(CONFIGURE_SYSCONDIR)
 AC_SUBST(CONFIGURE_LOCALSTATEDIR)
 AC_SUBST(PACKAGE_VERSION)
 
-AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile rust/Makefile rust/Cargo.toml rust/.cargo/config qa/Makefile qa/coccinelle/Makefile rules/Makefile doc/Makefile doc/userguide/Makefile contrib/Makefile contrib/file_processor/Makefile contrib/file_processor/Action/Makefile contrib/file_processor/Processor/Makefile contrib/tile_pcie_logd/Makefile suricata.yaml etc/Makefile etc/suricata.logrotate etc/suricata.service python/Makefile python/suricata/config/defaults.py python/bin/suricatasc ebpf/Makefile)
+AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile rust/Makefile rust/Cargo.toml rust/.cargo/config qa/Makefile qa/coccinelle/Makefile rules/Makefile doc/Makefile doc/userguide/Makefile contrib/Makefile contrib/file_processor/Makefile contrib/file_processor/Action/Makefile contrib/file_processor/Processor/Makefile contrib/tile_pcie_logd/Makefile suricata.yaml etc/Makefile etc/suricata.logrotate etc/suricata.service python/Makefile python/suricata/config/defaults.py ebpf/Makefile)
 
 SURICATA_BUILD_CONF="Suricata Configuration:
   AF_PACKET support:                       ${enable_af_packet}
diff --git a/python/.gitignore b/python/.gitignore
index 21cc772571..25a040f658 100644
--- a/python/.gitignore
+++ b/python/.gitignore
@@ -3,7 +3,5 @@
 build
 lib/
 scripts-*/
-bin/suricatasc
-!bin/suricatasc.in
 suricata/config/defaults.py
 !suricata/config/defaults.py.in
diff --git a/python/bin/suricatasc.in b/python/bin/suricatasc
similarity index 90%
rename from python/bin/suricatasc.in
rename to python/bin/suricatasc
index 0027469cc2..99af497779 100755
--- a/python/bin/suricatasc.in
+++ b/python/bin/suricatasc
@@ -38,6 +38,12 @@ else:
 
 from suricata.sc import *
 
+try:
+    from suricata.config import defaults
+    has_defaults = True
+except:
+    has_defaults = False
+
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='suricatasc', description='Client for Suricata unix socket')
 parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', action='store_const', const=True, help='verbose output (including JSON dump)')
 parser.add_argument('-c', '--command', default=None, help='execute on single command and return JSON')
@@ -46,8 +52,11 @@ args = parser.parse_args()
 
 if args.socket != None:
     SOCKET_PATH = args.socket
+elif has_defaults:
+    SOCKET_PATH = os.path.join(defaults.localstatedir, "suricata-command.socket")
 else:
-    SOCKET_PATH = "@e_localstatedir@/suricata-command.socket"
+    print("Unable to determine path to suricata-command.socket.", file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(1)
 
 sc = SuricataSC(SOCKET_PATH, verbose=args.verbose)
 try:
diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index 08f43bf6ee..16c5572d33 100644
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -3,8 +3,10 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 import os
 import re
 import sys
+import shutil
 
 from distutils.core import setup
+from distutils.command.build_py import build_py
 
 version = None
 if os.path.exists("../configure.ac"):
@@ -18,7 +20,22 @@ if version is None:
     print("error: failed to parse Suricata version, will use 0.0.0",
           file=sys.stderr)
     version = "0.0.0"
-    
+
+class do_build(build_py):
+    def run(self):
+        build_py.run(self)
+        defaults_py_out = os.path.join(
+            self.build_lib, "suricata", "config", "defaults.py")
+        if not os.path.exists(defaults_py_out):
+            # Must be an out of tree build, find defaults.py.
+            defaults_py_in = os.path.join(
+                self.build_lib, "..", "suricata", "config", "defaults.py")
+            if os.path.exists(defaults_py_in):
+                shutil.copy(defaults_py_in, defaults_py_out)
+            else:
+                print("error: failed to find defaults.py")
+                sys.exit(1)
+
 setup(
     name="suricata",
     description="Suricata control tools",
@@ -48,4 +65,5 @@ setup(
         'Programming Language :: Python',
         'Topic :: System :: Systems Administration',
     ],
+    cmdclass={'build_py': do_build},
 )
diff --git a/python/suricata/config/defaults.py.in b/python/suricata/config/defaults.py.in
index 3156e81689..f46935189a 100644
--- a/python/suricata/config/defaults.py.in
+++ b/python/suricata/config/defaults.py.in
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 sysconfdir = "@e_sysconfdir@"
 datarulesdir = "@e_datarulesdir@"
+localstatedir = "@e_localstatedir@"