diff --git a/bin/mkdir_local_data_link b/bin/mkdir_local_data_link
index 6d286d2b4a0f216ffbf672953ddb54363d6d2aba..bbc74024dac78718f575bad788beef424d66b43b 100755
--- a/bin/mkdir_local_data_link
+++ b/bin/mkdir_local_data_link
@@ -3,9 +3,17 @@ set -o nounset
 set -o errexit
 
 dirname="$1"
+if [[ -d "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/${dirname}" ]] ; then
+  echo "local data directory already exists"
+else 
+  mkdir -p "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/${dirname}"
+fi
+if [[ -d "${dirname}" ]] ; then
+  echo "link or directory exists in current directory "
+else 
+  ln -s "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/${dirname}" ${dirname}
+fi
 
-mkdir -p "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/${dirname}"
-ln -s "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/${dirname}" ${dirname}