1 files changed, 10 insertions, 12 deletions

diff --git a/lisp/files.el b/lisp/files.el
index 85e649fbb59..7ab6f769a8f 100644
--- a/lisp/files.el
+++ b/lisp/files.el
@@ -5501,10 +5501,10 @@ Noninteractively, the last argument PARENTS says whether to
 create parent directories if they don't exist.  Interactively,
 this happens by default.
 
-If NEWNAME names an existing directory, copy DIRECTORY as a
-subdirectory there.  However, if called from Lisp with a non-nil
-optional argument COPY-CONTENTS, copy the contents of DIRECTORY
-directly into NEWNAME instead."
+If NEWNAME is a directory name, copy DIRECTORY as a subdirectory
+there.  However, if called from Lisp with a non-nil optional
+argument COPY-CONTENTS, copy the contents of DIRECTORY directly
+into NEWNAME instead."
   (interactive
    (let ((dir (read-directory-name
                "Copy directory: " default-directory default-directory t nil)))
@@ -5526,19 +5526,17 @@ directly into NEWNAME instead."
 
       ;; Compute target name.
       (setq directory (directory-file-name (expand-file-name directory))
-            newname   (directory-file-name (expand-file-name newname)))
+            newname (expand-file-name newname))
 
-      (cond ((not (file-directory-p newname))
-             ;; If NEWNAME is not an existing directory, create it;
+      (cond ((not (directory-name-p newname))
+             ;; If NEWNAME is not a directory name, create it;
              ;; that is where we will copy the files of DIRECTORY.
              (make-directory newname parents))
-            ;; If NEWNAME is an existing directory and COPY-CONTENTS
+            ;; If NEWNAME is a directory name and COPY-CONTENTS
             ;; is nil, copy into NEWNAME/[DIRECTORY-BASENAME].
             ((not copy-contents)
-             (setq newname (concat
-                            (file-name-as-directory newname)
-                            (file-name-nondirectory
-                             (directory-file-name directory))))
+             (setq newname (concat newname
+                            (file-name-nondirectory directory)))
              (and (file-exists-p newname)
                   (not (file-directory-p newname))
                   (error "Cannot overwrite non-directory %s with a directory"