diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8c475126..765b5626 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -108,7 +108,11 @@ To build and install everything under a private directory, run:
 
     make DESTDIR=~/obj install install-rubywrap install-pywrap
 
-On Debian `PYTHON_SETUP_ARGS='--install-option "--install-layout=deb"'` needs to be set when installing the python wrappers in order to create the correct python directory structure.
+On Debian the environment variable `DEB_PYTHON_INSTALL_LAYOUT` needs to be set
+to `deb` when installing the Python wrappers in order to create the correct
+Python directory structure.
+On Debian systems older than bookworm set
+`PYTHON_SETUP_ARGS='--install-option "--install-layout=deb"'` instead.
 
 To run tests with the built libraries and programs, several paths (relative to `$DESTDIR`) need to be added to variables `$LD_LIBRARY_PATH`, `$PATH` and `$PYTHONPATH`.
 This can be done using [./scripts/env_use_destdir](./scripts/env_use_destdir):
diff --git a/scripts/run-scan-build b/scripts/run-scan-build
index 931ffd2a..7b731f3e 100755
--- a/scripts/run-scan-build
+++ b/scripts/run-scan-build
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ export PYTHONPATH="$DESTDIR$(${PYTHON:-python3} -c "import sysconfig; print(sysc
 export RUBYLIB="$DESTDIR/$(${RUBY:-ruby} -e 'puts RbConfig::CONFIG["vendorlibdir"]'):$DESTDIR/$(${RUBY:-ruby} -e 'puts RbConfig::CONFIG["vendorarchdir"]')"
 
 if [ -f /etc/debian_version ] && [ -z "${IS_CIRCLE_CI:-}" ] ; then
-    export PYTHON_SETUP_ARGS='--install-layout=deb'
+    export DEB_PYTHON_INSTALL_LAYOUT='deb'
 fi
 
 # Build and analyze