diff --git a/libpkgconf/pkg.c b/libpkgconf/pkg.c
index 748f011..834aaa5 100644
--- a/libpkgconf/pkg.c
+++ b/libpkgconf/pkg.c
@@ -414,15 +414,12 @@ pkgconf_pkg_new_from_file(pkgconf_client_t *client, const char *filename, FILE *
 	pkgconf_tuple_add(client, &pkg->vars, "pcfiledir", pc_filedir_value, true);
 	free(pc_filedir_value);
 
-	/* If pc_filedir is outside of sysroot_dir, clear pc_filedir
+	/* If pc_filedir is outside of sysroot_dir, override sysroot_dir for this
+	 * package.
 	 * See https://github.com/pkgconf/pkgconf/issues/213
 	 */
 	if (client->sysroot_dir && strncmp(pkg->pc_filedir, client->sysroot_dir, strlen(client->sysroot_dir)))
-	{
-		free(client->sysroot_dir);
-		client->sysroot_dir = NULL;
-		pkgconf_client_set_sysroot_dir(client, NULL);
-	}
+		pkgconf_tuple_add(client, &pkg->vars, "pc_sysrootdir", "", false);
 
 	/* make module id */
 	if ((idptr = strrchr(pkg->filename, PKG_DIR_SEP_S)) != NULL)