diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/coreos-kernel.eclass b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/coreos-kernel.eclass
index 72a0646d06..c8c00466a9 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/coreos-kernel.eclass
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/eclass/coreos-kernel.eclass
@@ -113,8 +113,6 @@ kmake() {
 	if gcc-specs-pie; then
 		kernel_cflags="-nopie -fstack-check=no"
 	fi
-	# this can be removed once it is exported globally again
-	export CCACHE_BASEDIR="${S}"
 	emake "--directory=${S}/source" \
 		ARCH="${kernel_arch}" \
 		CROSS_COMPILE="${CHOST}-" \
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/profile.bashrc b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/profile.bashrc
index 3e4b812f6e..bbf8d895b9 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/profile.bashrc
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/profile.bashrc
@@ -99,3 +99,10 @@ SYSROOT_WRAPPERS_BIN="/usr/lib/sysroot-wrappers/bin"
 if [[ "$PATH" != *"$SYSROOT_WRAPPERS_BIN"* ]]; then
     export PATH="$SYSROOT_WRAPPERS_BIN:$PATH"
 fi
+
+# Improve the chance that ccache is valid across versions by making all
+# paths under $S relative to $S, avoiding encoding the package version
+# contained in the path into __FILE__ expansions and debug info.
+if [[ -z "${CCACHE_BASEDIR}" ]] && [[ -d "${S}" ]]; then
+    export CCACHE_BASEDIR="${S}"
+fi