diff --git a/nvm-exec b/nvm-exec
index 44d5ddb..5e88766 100755
--- a/nvm-exec
+++ b/nvm-exec
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-DIR="$(command cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
+SOURCE=${BASH_SOURCE[0]}
+test -L "$SOURCE" && command cd "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )" && \
+  SOURCE=$(readlink "$SOURCE")
+DIR="$(command cd "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )" && pwd )"
 
 unset NVM_CD_FLAGS
 
diff --git a/nvm.sh b/nvm.sh
index d943896..841eb49 100755
--- a/nvm.sh
+++ b/nvm.sh
@@ -1265,10 +1265,9 @@ nvm_list_aliases() {
         if [ -n "${LTS_ALIAS}" ]; then
           nvm_echo "${LTS_ALIAS}"
         fi
-      } &
+      }
     done
-    wait
-  ) | command sort
+  )
   return
 }
 
@@ -2534,12 +2533,12 @@ nvm_extract_tarball() {
 
   if [ "${NVM_OS}" = 'openbsd' ]; then
     if [ "${tar_compression_flag}" = 'J' ]; then
-      command xzcat "${TARBALL}" | "${tar}" -xf - -C "${TMPDIR}" -s '/[^\/]*\///' || return 1
+      command xzcat "${TARBALL}" | "${tar}" --no-same-owner -xf - -C "${TMPDIR}" -s '/[^\/]*\///' || return 1
     else
-      command "${tar}" -x${tar_compression_flag}f "${TARBALL}" -C "${TMPDIR}" -s '/[^\/]*\///' || return 1
+      command "${tar}" --no-same-owner -x${tar_compression_flag}f "${TARBALL}" -C "${TMPDIR}" -s '/[^\/]*\///' || return 1
     fi
   else
-    command "${tar}" -x${tar_compression_flag}f "${TARBALL}" -C "${TMPDIR}" --strip-components 1 || return 1
+    command "${tar}" --no-same-owner -x${tar_compression_flag}f "${TARBALL}" -C "${TMPDIR}" --strip-components 1 || return 1
   fi
 }
 
@@ -4080,7 +4079,9 @@ nvm() {
           nvm_echo "Running node ${VERSION}$(nvm use --silent "${VERSION}" && nvm_print_npm_version)"
         fi
       fi
-      NODE_VERSION="${VERSION}" "${NVM_DIR}/nvm-exec" "$@"
+      NVM_EXEC="$NVM_DIR/nvm-exec"
+      test ! -f "$NVM_EXEC" && NVM_EXEC="$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]-}")/nvm-exec"
+      NODE_VERSION="$VERSION" "$NVM_EXEC" "$@"
     ;;
     "ls" | "list")
       local PATTERN
diff --git "a/test/slow/nvm exec/Running \"nvm exec --lts\" when NVM_DIR differs from nvm" "b/test/slow/nvm exec/Running \"nvm exec --lts\" when NVM_DIR differs from nvm"
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee314be
--- /dev/null
+++ "b/test/slow/nvm exec/Running \"nvm exec --lts\" when NVM_DIR differs from nvm"	
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+set -ex
+
+die () { echo "$@" ; exit 1; }
+
+INSTPATH="$(mktemp -p "$(pwd)" -d)"
+trap 'test ! -z "${INSTPATH-}" && test -d "$INSTPATH" && rm -rf "$INSTPATH"' EXIT
+declare -x NVM_DIR=$INSTPATH
+\. ../../../nvm.sh
+
+nvm install --lts || die 'nvm install --lts failed'
+nvm exec --lts npm --version || die "`nvm exec` failed to run"
+declare -x NODE_VERSION="$(nvm exec --lts --silent node --version)"
+
+ln -s ../../../../nvm-exec "$INSTPATH/nvm-exec" || die "failed to create a symlink to $INSTPATH/"
+"$INSTPATH/nvm-exec" npm ls > /dev/null || die "`nvm exec` failed to run using nvm-exec helper"
+