diff --git a/scripts/projects.py b/scripts/projects.py
index 9fbfcd2e..5b1c6f24 100644
--- a/scripts/projects.py
+++ b/scripts/projects.py
@@ -564,9 +564,6 @@ class Projects(object):
                     run_make(m, target, cur_project, num_projects)
 
         def run(args_):
-            visited = {}
-            glob_order = []
-            self.projs_root = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid()).pw_dir + "/local/src/jw.dev/proj"
 
             # -- parse command line
             parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='janware software project build tool')
@@ -882,6 +879,9 @@ class Projects(object):
             if a[0] != '-':
                 break
 
+        # -- defaults
+        self.projs_root = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid()).pw_dir + "/local/src/jw.dev/proj"
+
         parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Project metadata evaluation')
         parser.add_argument('-d', '--debug', action='store_true',
             default=False, help='Output debug information to stderr')
@@ -899,6 +899,7 @@ class Projects(object):
         self.debug("----------------------------------------- running ", ' '.join(sys.argv))
 
         self.projs_root = args.prefix[0]
+        self.debug("projs_root = ", self.projs_root)
         if len(args.topdir):
             self.topdir = args.topdir[0]