diff --git a/EESSI-install-software.sh b/EESSI-install-software.sh
index 470663e45a..a905d966f6 100755
--- a/EESSI-install-software.sh
+++ b/EESSI-install-software.sh
@@ -204,11 +204,15 @@ ${EESSI_PREFIX}/scripts/gpu_support/nvidia/install_cuda_host_injections.sh -c 12
 
 # use PR patch file to determine in which easystack files stuff was added
 changed_easystacks=$(cat ${pr_diff} | grep '^+++' | cut -f2 -d' ' | sed 's@^[a-z]/@@g' | grep '^easystacks/.*yml$' | egrep -v 'known-issues|missing') 
-if [ -z ${changed_easystacks} ]; then
+if [ -z "${changed_easystacks}" ]; then
     echo "No missing installations, party time!"  # Ensure the bot report success, as there was nothing to be build here
 else
 
-    for easystack_file in ${changed_easystacks}; do
+    # first process rebuilds, if any, then easystack files for new installations
+    # "|| true" is used to make sure that the grep command always returns success
+    rebuild_easystacks=$(echo "${changed_easystacks}" | (grep "/rebuilds/" || true))
+    new_easystacks=$(echo "${changed_easystacks}" | (grep -v "/rebuilds/" || true))
+    for easystack_file in ${rebuild_easystacks} ${new_easystacks}; do
 
         echo -e "Processing easystack file ${easystack_file}...\n\n"
 
diff --git a/bot/build.sh b/bot/build.sh
index b007b80172..dcc61c19d4 100755
--- a/bot/build.sh
+++ b/bot/build.sh
@@ -182,8 +182,10 @@ fi
 # determine if the removal step has to be run
 # assume there's only one diff file that corresponds to the PR patch file
 pr_diff=$(ls [0-9]*.diff | head -1)
-changed_easystacks_rebuilds=$(cat ${pr_diff} | grep '^+++' | cut -f2 -d' ' | sed 's@^[a-z]/@@g' | grep '^easystacks/.*yml$' | grep "/rebuilds/")
-if [[ -z ${changed_easystacks_rebuilds} ]]; then
+# the true at the end of the next command is important: grep will expectedly return 1 if there is no easystack file being added under rebuilds,
+# but due to "set -e" the entire script would otherwise fail
+changed_easystacks_rebuilds=$(cat ${pr_diff} | grep '^+++' | cut -f2 -d' ' | sed 's@^[a-z]/@@g' | grep '^easystacks/.*yml$' | (grep "/rebuilds/" || true))
+if [[ -z "${changed_easystacks_rebuilds}" ]]; then
     echo "This PR does not add any easystack files in a rebuilds subdirectory, so let's skip the removal step."
 else
     # prepare directory to store tarball of tmp for removal and build steps
@@ -192,7 +194,7 @@ else
 
     # prepare arguments to eessi_container.sh specific to remove step
     declare -a REMOVAL_STEP_ARGS=()
-    REMOVAL_STEP_ARGS+=("--save" "${TARBALL_TMP_BUILD_STEP_DIR}")
+    REMOVAL_STEP_ARGS+=("--save" "${TARBALL_TMP_REMOVAL_STEP_DIR}")
     REMOVAL_STEP_ARGS+=("--storage" "${STORAGE}")
     # add fakeroot option in order to be able to remove software, see:
     # https://github.com/EESSI/software-layer/issues/312
@@ -247,7 +249,14 @@ declare -a TARBALL_STEP_ARGS=()
 TARBALL_STEP_ARGS+=("--save" "${TARBALL_TMP_TARBALL_STEP_DIR}")
 
 # determine temporary directory to resume from
-TARBALL_STEP_ARGS+=("--resume" "${REMOVAL_TMPDIR}")
+if [[ -z ${REMOVAL_TMPDIR} ]]; then
+    # no rebuild step was done, so the tarball step should resume from the build directory
+    BUILD_TMPDIR=$(grep ' as tmp directory ' ${build_outerr} | cut -d ' ' -f 2)
+    TARBALL_STEP_ARGS+=("--resume" "${BUILD_TMPDIR}")
+else
+    # a removal step was done, so resume from its temporary directory (which was also used for the build step)
+    TARBALL_STEP_ARGS+=("--resume" "${REMOVAL_TMPDIR}")
+fi
 
 timestamp=$(date +%s)
 # to set EESSI_VERSION we need to source init/eessi_defaults now