diff --git a/tools/build/history.py b/tools/build/history.py
index 73235f2d7bdf..fa1737221a46 100755
--- a/tools/build/history.py
+++ b/tools/build/history.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 arg_parser = sumolib.options.ArgumentParser()
 arg_parser.add_argument("-b", "--begin", default="v1_3_0", help="first revision to build")
 arg_parser.add_argument("-e", "--end", default="HEAD", help="last revision to build")
+arg_parser.add_argument("-d", "--destination", default="..", help="where to put build results")
 arg_parser.add_argument("-t", "--tags-only", action="store_true", default=False,
                         help="only build tagged revisions")
 options = arg_parser.parse_args()
@@ -55,7 +56,6 @@
                 commits[tag] = tag
             if tag == options.end:
                 active = False
-        print(commits)
     else:
         for line in subprocess.check_output(["git", "log", "%s..%s" % (options.begin, options.end)]).splitlines():
             if line.startswith("commit "):
@@ -63,7 +63,8 @@
                 commits[h] = sumolib.version.gitDescribe(h)
     haveBuild = False
     for h, desc in sorted(commits.items(), key=lambda x: x[1]):
-        if not os.path.exists('../bin%s' % desc):
+        dest = os.path.join(options.destination, 'bin%s' % desc)
+        if not os.path.exists(dest):
             ret = subprocess.call(["git", "checkout", "-q", h])
             if ret != 0:
                 continue
@@ -71,10 +72,9 @@
             subprocess.call('make clean; make -j32', shell=True)
             os.chdir("../..")
             haveBuild = True
-            shutil.copytree('bin', '../bin%s' % desc,
-                            ignore=shutil.ignore_patterns('Makefile*', '*.bat', '*.jar'))
-            subprocess.call('strip -R .note.gnu.build-id ../bin%s/*' % desc, shell=True)
-            subprocess.call("sed -i 's/%s/%s/' ../bin%s/*" % (desc, len(desc) * "0", desc), shell=True)
+            shutil.copytree('bin', dest, ignore=shutil.ignore_patterns('Makefile*', '*.bat', '*.jar'))
+            subprocess.call('strip -R .note.gnu.build-id %s/*' % dest, shell=True)
+            subprocess.call("sed -i 's/%s/%s/' %s" % (desc, len(desc) * "0", dest), shell=True)
     if haveBuild:
         for line in subprocess.check_output('fdupes -1 -q ../binv*', shell=True).splitlines():
             dups = line.split()