diff --git a/ocamllib/libbase/file.ml b/ocamllib/libbase/file.ml
index b32aa683..2cf59549 100644
--- a/ocamllib/libbase/file.ml
+++ b/ocamllib/libbase/file.ml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 (*
-    Copyright © 2011 MLstate
+    Copyright © 2011, 2012 MLstate
 
     This file is part of Opa.
 
@@ -324,20 +324,21 @@ let rec remove_all_symlinks path =
 
 (** create all necessary directories to access a file path *)
 let rec check_create_path ?(rights=0o755) ?(nobackslash=true) ?(isdirectory=false) path =
+  let path = remove_all_symlinks path in
   let path = if isdirectory then Filename.concat path "test" else path in
   let path = if nobackslash then Base.String.map (fun c -> if c='\\' then '/' else c) path else path in
   let dirname = Filename.dirname path in
   if dirname=path || dirname=".." || path="." || path="/" then (
     true (*terminal case*)
-  ) else 
+  ) else
     try
       Sys.is_directory dirname || (
         failwith ("Not a directory but exists: "^dirname)
       )
       (* terminal case *)
     with Sys_error _ -> (
-      check_create_path ~rights dirname 
-      && (try Unix.mkdir dirname rights; true with Unix.Unix_error _ -> Printf.printf "mkdir error%s\n" dirname; false)
+      check_create_path ~rights dirname
+      && (try Unix.mkdir dirname rights; true with Unix.Unix_error _ -> Printf.printf "mkdir error %s\n" dirname; false)
     )
 
 (** hopefully, this is the ultimate and portable version of cp *)