diff --git a/config/ChangeLog b/config/ChangeLog
index 6e1743fe4b..5d20a96d53 100644
--- a/config/ChangeLog
+++ b/config/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2003-12-15  Angus Leeming  <leeming-0hXrFu2P2+c@public.gmane.org>
+
+	* lyxinclude.m4: define AC_FUNC_MKDIR.
+
+	* configure.ac: add AC_FUNC_MKDIR test and code to
+	#define mkdir should a non-POSIX version be found.
+
 2004-12-06  Jean-Marc Lasgouttes  <lasgouttes@lyx.org>
 
 	* *.m4: quote the name of the macro in AC_DEFUN
diff --git a/config/configure.ac b/config/configure.ac
index a5759306e9..262310ad1e 100644
--- a/config/configure.ac
+++ b/config/configure.ac
@@ -248,6 +248,9 @@ LYX_CHECK_DECL(vsnprintf, stdio.h)
 LYX_CHECK_DECL(istreambuf_iterator, iterator)
 LYX_CHECK_DECL(mkstemp,[unistd.h stdlib.h])
 
+# Check the form of mkdir()
+AC_FUNC_MKDIR
+
 dnl This is a slight hack: the tests generated by autoconf 2.52 do not
 dnl work correctly because of some conflict with stdlib.h with g++ 2.96
 dnl We aim to remove this eventually, since we should test as much as
@@ -337,6 +340,20 @@ int mkstemp(char*);
 #endif
 #endif
 
+#if HAVE_MKDIR
+#  if MKDIR_TAKES_ONE_ARG
+     /* MinGW32 */
+#    define mkdir(a, b) mkdir(a)
+#  endif
+#else
+#  if HAVE__MKDIR
+     /* plain Windows 32 */
+#    define mkdir(a, b) _mkdir(a)
+#  else
+#    error "Don't know how to create a directory on this system."
+#  endif
+#endif
+
 #ifdef __EMX__
 #include "support/os2_defines.h"
 #endif
diff --git a/config/lyxinclude.m4 b/config/lyxinclude.m4
index 7de1050aa6..8de4eebd87 100644
--- a/config/lyxinclude.m4
+++ b/config/lyxinclude.m4
@@ -693,3 +693,27 @@ AM_PROG_LIBTOOL dnl for libraries
 CC=$ac_save_cc
 CFLAGS="$ac_save_cflags"
 ])
+
+## ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Check whether mkdir() is mkdir or _mkdir, and whether it takes
+## one or two arguments.
+##
+## http://ac-archive.sourceforge.net/C_Support/ac_func_mkdir.html
+## ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+##
+AC_DEFUN([AC_FUNC_MKDIR],
+[AC_CHECK_FUNCS([mkdir _mkdir])
+AC_CACHE_CHECK([whether mkdir takes one argument],
+               [ac_cv_mkdir_takes_one_arg],
+[AC_TRY_COMPILE([
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#if HAVE_UNISTD_H
+#  include <unistd.h>
+#endif
+], [mkdir (".");],
+[ac_cv_mkdir_takes_one_arg=yes], [ac_cv_mkdir_takes_one_arg=no])])
+if test x"$ac_cv_mkdir_takes_one_arg" = xyes; then
+  AC_DEFINE([MKDIR_TAKES_ONE_ARG], 1,
+            [Define if mkdir takes only one argument.])
+fi
+])