okay, running in a double chpst env does mess up the temp directory
root@skyliner-db:/tmp/fakewal-e# ./run
Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2013, 06:20:15)
[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.environ
{'TMP': '/mnt/wal-e/tmp', ...}