# HG changeset patch
# User John W. Eaton <jwe@octave.org>
# Date 1216919016 14400
# Node ID b6d4c644b4b61ada8f5f7ede36072a9b64005389
# Parent  4f9e8eeb2059cf6d20e821958233d4e773ef4cff
Fmkdir: improve compatibility

diff --git a/src/ChangeLog b/src/ChangeLog
--- a/src/ChangeLog
+++ b/src/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2008-07-24  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
+
+	* dirfns.cc (Fmkdir): If directory already exists, return status =
+	true, but also set error message.
+
 2008-07-23  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
 
 	* ov-usr_fcn.cc (octave_user_function::do_multi_index_op):
diff --git a/src/dirfns.cc b/src/dirfns.cc
--- a/src/dirfns.cc
+++ b/src/dirfns.cc
@@ -257,16 +257,31 @@
     {
       std::string msg;
 
-      int status = file_ops::mkdir (file_ops::tilde_expand (dirname),
-				    0777, msg);
+      dirname = file_ops::tilde_expand (dirname);
+
+      file_stat fs (dirname);
 
-      if (status < 0)
+      if (fs && fs.is_dir ())
 	{
+	  // For compatibility with Matlab, we return true when the
+	  // directory already exists.
+
 	  retval(2) = "mkdir";
-	  retval(1) = msg;
+	  retval(1) = "directory exists";
+	  retval(0) = true;
 	}
       else
-	retval(0) = true;
+	{
+	  int status = file_ops::mkdir (dirname, 0777, msg);
+
+	  if (status < 0)
+	    {
+	      retval(2) = "mkdir";
+	      retval(1) = msg;
+	    }
+	  else
+	    retval(0) = true;
+	}
     }
   else
     print_usage ();