diff --git a/tests/travis/run_test.sh b/tests/travis/run_test.sh
index fbf97dcd1f5b..2b8ed74ff8de 100755
--- a/tests/travis/run_test.sh
+++ b/tests/travis/run_test.sh
@@ -57,9 +57,11 @@ fi
 if [ ${TASK} == "rabit_recovery" ]; then
     set -e
     mkdir build
+    cd build
     CC=gcc-7 CXX=g++-7 cmake -DRABIT_MOCK=ON ..
     make
+    cd ..
+    rm -rf build
     cd tests/cli
     ./runxgb.sh
-    rm -rf build
 fi
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/travis/setup.sh b/tests/travis/setup.sh
index f282a41f4032..2ef89f50490f 100755
--- a/tests/travis/setup.sh
+++ b/tests/travis/setup.sh
@@ -22,7 +22,10 @@ fi
 
 if [ ${TASK} == "rabit_recovery" ]; then
   if [[ ${TRAVIS_OS_NAME} == "linux" ]]; then sudo apt-get install python3-pip; fi
-  if [[ ${TRAVIS_OS_NAME} == "osx" ]]; then brew install python3; fi
+  if [[ ${TRAVIS_OS_NAME} == "osx" ]]; then
+    brew install python3;
+    sudo softwareupdate -i "Command Line Tools (macOS High Sierra version 10.13) for Xcode-9.3"
+  fi
   sudo pip3 install cpplint pylint urllib3 numpy
   sudo pip3 install websocket-client kubernetes
 fi
\ No newline at end of file