diff --git a/backup_new.sh b/backup_new.sh
index fff1e0d..07a7f1d 100755
--- a/backup_new.sh
+++ b/backup_new.sh
@@ -495,6 +495,27 @@ exclusions=1
 fi
 
 
+### create borg temp dir:
+## python requires a writable temporary directory when unpacking borg and
+## executing commands.  This defaults to /tmp but many systems mount /tmp with
+## the 'noexec' option for security.  Thus, we will use/create a 'tmp' folder
+## within the BORG_BASE_DIR and instruct python to use that instead of /tmp
+
+# check if BORG_BASE_DIR/tmp exists, if not, create it
+if [ ! -d "${borgBaseDir}/tmp" ]; then
+    if ! mkdir "${borgBaseDir}/tmp"; then
+        exitError 132 "Unable to create borg ${borgBaseDir}/tmp directory"
+    else
+        printf "${cyan}[%s] -- [INFO] Created ${yellow}%s/tmp " \
+            "$(stamp)" "${borgBaseDir}" >> "$logFile"
+        printf "${cyan}--${norm}\n" >> "$logFile"
+    fi
+fi
+export TMPDIR="${borgBaseDir}/tmp"
+
+
+
+