diff --git a/src/server/slavefuncs.c b/src/server/slavefuncs.c
--- a/src/server/slavefuncs.c
+++ b/src/server/slavefuncs.c
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 #include <archive.h>
 #include <archive_entry.h>
 
+#include <errno.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
@@ -306,22 +307,42 @@ void xmlcleanup()
 
 
 /** Creates directories recursively */
-int distren_mkdir_recurse(char *dirname)
+int distren_mkdir_recurse(const char *dirname)
 {
   size_t counter;
   char *nextdir;
+  int ret;
 
   nextdir = strdup(dirname);
-  for(counter = 0; nextdir[counter]; counter ++)
+  /* skip preficing slashes */
+  for(counter = 0; nextdir[counter] == '/'; counter ++)
+    ;
+  for(; nextdir[counter]; counter ++)
     {
       /** @TODO OS-portabalize the path-separators */
       if(nextdir[counter] == '/')
         {
           nextdir[counter] = '\0';
-          mkdir(nextdir, S_IRWXU | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH);
+          ret = mkdir(nextdir, S_IRWXU | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH);
+	  if(ret == -1
+	     && errno != EEXIST)
+	    {
+	      perror("mkdir");
+	      free(nextdir);
+	      return 1;
+	    }
           nextdir[counter] = '/';
         }
     }
+  ret = mkdir(nextdir, S_IRWXU | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH);
+  if(ret == -1
+     && errno != EEXIST)
+    {
+      perror("mkdir");
+      free(nextdir);
+      return 1;
+    }
+  free(nextdir);
 
   return 0;
 }