diff --git a/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.8 b/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.8
--- a/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.8
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@
 and
 .Pa security
 scripts
-.It Pa /etc/periodic.conf
+.It Pa /etc/periodic.conf , ${LOCALBASE}/etc/periodic.conf
 this file contains local overrides for the default
 .Nm
 configuration
@@ -207,7 +207,12 @@
 .Va local_periodic
 variable reading:
 .Pp
-.Dl local_periodic="/usr/local/etc/periodic"
+.Dl local_periodic="${_localbase}/etc/periodic"
+.Pp
+where
+.Pa ${_localbase}
+is being set from within
+.Pa /usr/sbin/periodic .
 .Pp
 To log
 .Nm
diff --git a/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.conf b/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.conf
--- a/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.conf
+++ b/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.conf
@@ -17,10 +17,10 @@
 #
 
 # What files override these defaults ?
-periodic_conf_files="/etc/periodic.conf /etc/periodic.conf.local"
+periodic_conf_files="/etc/periodic.conf /etc/periodic.conf.local ${_localbase}/etc/periodic.conf"
 
-# periodic script dirs
-local_periodic="/usr/local/etc/periodic"
+# periodic script dirs. _localbase is being set in /usr/sbin/periodic
+local_periodic="${_localbase}/etc/periodic"
 
 # Max time to sleep to avoid causing congestion on download servers
 anticongestion_sleeptime=3600
diff --git a/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.sh b/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.sh
--- a/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.sh
+++ b/usr.sbin/periodic/periodic.sh
@@ -30,9 +30,13 @@
     usage
 fi
 
+_localbase=`/sbin/sysctl -n user.localbase 2> /dev/null`
+# Set default value of _localbase if not previously set
+: ${_localbase:="/usr/local"}
+
 # Use a deterministic path to match the preset from /etc/crontab in case
 # periodic is run interactively.
-export PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin
+export PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:${_localbase}/sbin:${_localbase}/bin
 
 # If possible, check the global system configuration file,
 # to see if there are additional dirs to check