diff --git a/src/etc/Makefile b/src/etc/Makefile
index 65ba19f3..7d0201f1 100644
--- a/src/etc/Makefile
+++ b/src/etc/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#	$OpenBSD: Makefile,v 1.150 2002/02/16 01:20:42 deraadt Exp $
+#	$OpenBSD: Makefile,v 1.151 2002/02/26 19:08:05 deraadt Exp $
 
 TZDIR=		/usr/share/zoneinfo
 LOCALTIME=	US/Pacific
@@ -242,7 +242,9 @@ distribution: distribution-etc-root-var
 	(cd ..; ${MAKE} install)
 
 distrib-dirs:
-	${INSTALL} -d -o root -g wheel -m 755 ${DESTDIR}
+	if [ ! -d ${DESTDIR}/. ]; then \
+		${INSTALL} -d -o root -g wheel -m 755 ${DESTDIR}; \
+	fi
 	-mtree -qdef mtree/4.4BSD.dist -p ${DESTDIR}/ -u
 	if [ ! -d ${DESTDIR}/usr/src ]; then \
 		${INSTALL} -d -o root -g wsrc -m 775 ${DESTDIR}/usr/src; \