diff --git a/bin/~place-holder~ b/bin/~place-holder~
deleted file mode 100644
index 04a214368bf..00000000000
--- a/bin/~place-holder~
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-Command binaries are installed in this directory.
-
-Mercurial does not maintain empty directories.
-This file helps.
diff --git a/pkg/~place-holder~ b/pkg/~place-holder~
deleted file mode 100644
index 0ea2de6eaca..00000000000
--- a/pkg/~place-holder~
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-Package binaries are installed in this directory tree.
-
-Mercurial does not maintain empty directories.
-This file helps.
diff --git a/src/env.bash b/src/env.bash
index b858e069b06..d96d50cb268 100644
--- a/src/env.bash
+++ b/src/env.bash
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ if [ "$DIR1" != "$DIR2" ]; then
 fi
 
 export GOBIN=${GOBIN:-"$GOROOT/bin"}
-if [ ! -d "$GOBIN" ]; then
+if [ ! -d "$GOBIN" -a "$GOBIN" != "$GOROOT/bin" ]; then
 	echo '$GOBIN is not a directory or does not exist' 1>&2
 	echo 'create it or set $GOBIN differently' 1>&2
 	exit 1
diff --git a/src/make.bash b/src/make.bash
index c778d922af6..0a0f49455f8 100755
--- a/src/make.bash
+++ b/src/make.bash
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@ if [ ! -f env.bash ]; then
 fi
 . ./env.bash
 
+# Create target directories
+if [ "$GOBIN" = "$GOROOT/bin" ]; then
+	mkdir -p "$GOROOT/bin"
+fi
+mkdir -p "$GOROOT/pkg"
+
 GOROOT_FINAL=${GOROOT_FINAL:-$GOROOT}
 
 MAKEFLAGS=${MAKEFLAGS:-"-j4"}