diff --git a/hostconfig/hostconfig b/hostconfig/hostconfig
index 6283c05..8d98aad 100755
--- a/hostconfig/hostconfig
+++ b/hostconfig/hostconfig
@@ -56,8 +56,8 @@ sub evalue_expression {
 sub populate_node {
 	my ($hostname)=@_;
 	my $DIR='/node/tags';
-	-d $DIR and system "rm -rf $DIR" and exit 1;
-	mkdir $DIR or die "$DIR: $!\n";
+	-d $DIR and system 'rm', '-rf', $DIR and exit 1;
+	system 'mkdir', '-p', $DIR and exit 1;
 	my $tags=$TAGS{$hostname};
 	for (keys %$tags) {
 		open my $touch,'>',"$DIR/$_";