diff --git a/src/configure b/src/configure
index 56af8c418..75cfc6127 100755
--- a/src/configure
+++ b/src/configure
@@ -10814,4 +10814,4 @@ if test -n "$ac_unrecognized_opts" && test "$enable_option_checking" != no; then
 $as_echo "$as_me: WARNING: unrecognized options: $ac_unrecognized_opts" >&2;}
 fi
 
-for i in $srcdir/c/*/; do mkdir c/`basename $i`; done
+for i in $srcdir/c/*/; do mkdir -p c/`basename $i`; done
diff --git a/src/configure.in b/src/configure.in
index 3546e0891..f95130483 100644
--- a/src/configure.in
+++ b/src/configure.in
@@ -902,4 +902,4 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([
  ])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([ecl/config.h:ecl/configpre.h]) # FIXME
 AC_OUTPUT
-for i in $srcdir/c/*/; do mkdir c/`basename $i`; done
+for i in $srcdir/c/*/; do mkdir -p c/`basename $i`; done