diff --git a/glib/gfileutils.c b/glib/gfileutils.c
index 676c08c21a50d2d5913a1a78f851a978bdae6432..16ee663844b167f9966c408e6eaabe10cb7974cc 100644
--- a/glib/gfileutils.c
+++ b/glib/gfileutils.c
@@ -226,6 +226,20 @@ g_mkdir_with_parents (const gchar *pathname,
       return -1;
     }
 
+  /* try to create the full path first */
+  if (g_mkdir (pathname, mode) == 0)
+    return 0;
+  else if (errno == EEXIST)
+    {
+      if (!g_file_test (pathname, G_FILE_TEST_IS_DIR))
+        {
+          errno = ENOTDIR;
+          return -1;
+        }
+      return 0;
+    }
+
+  /* walk the full path and try creating each element */
   fn = g_strdup (pathname);
 
   if (g_path_is_absolute (fn))
@@ -248,9 +262,12 @@ g_mkdir_with_parents (const gchar *pathname,
 	  if (g_mkdir (fn, mode) == -1 && errno != EEXIST)
 	    {
 	      int errno_save = errno;
-	      g_free (fn);
-	      errno = errno_save;
-	      return -1;
+              if (p && errno != ENOENT)
+                {
+	          g_free (fn);
+	          errno = errno_save;
+	          return -1;
+		}
 	    }
 	}
       else if (!g_file_test (fn, G_FILE_TEST_IS_DIR))