Add my comment from ChangeLog entry for gkm's change.

diff --git a/lib/makepath.c b/lib/makepath.c
index ea0a021d863393f891379b746f4fdfb11de5ab39..99119a213107aa821a92a3095f80def13994ddf3 100644 (file)
--- a/lib/makepath.c
+++ b/lib/makepath.c
@@ -217,6 +217,14 @@ make_path (const char *argpath,
          if (!do_chdir)
            basename_dir = dirpath;
 
+         /* The mkdir and stat calls below appear to be reversed.
+            They are not.  It is important to call mkdir first and then to
+            call stat (to distinguish the three cases) only if mkdir fails.
+            The alternative to this approach is to `stat' each directory,
+            then to call mkdir if it doesn't exist.  But if some other process
+            were to create the directory between the stat & mkdir, the mkdir
+            would fail with EEXIST.  */
+
          *slash = '\0';
          if (mkdir (basename_dir, tmp_mode))
            {