diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php
index e82ec2d6dd..8918da26cf 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php
@@ -138,34 +138,40 @@ protected function ensureDirectory($directory, $mode = 0777) {
    *   The directory path.
    * @param int $mode
    *   The mode, permissions, the directory should have.
-   * @param bool $is_backwards_recursive
-   *   Internal use only.
    *
    * @return bool
    *   TRUE if the directory exists or has been created, FALSE otherwise.
    */
-  protected function createDirectory($directory, $mode = 0777, $is_backwards_recursive = FALSE) {
+  protected function createDirectory($directory, $mode = 0777) {
     // If the directory exists already, there's nothing to do.
     if (is_dir($directory)) {
       return TRUE;
     }
-    // Otherwise, try to create the directory and ensure to set its permissions,
-    // because mkdir() obeys the umask of the current process.
-    if (is_dir($parent = dirname($directory))) {
-      // If the parent directory exists, then the backwards recursion must end,
-      // regardless of whether the subdirectory could be created.
-      if ($status = mkdir($directory)) {
-        // Only try to chmod() if the subdirectory could be created.
-        $status = chmod($directory, $mode);
+
+    // If the parent directory doesn't exist, try and create it.
+    $parent_exists = is_dir($parent = dirname($directory));
+    if (!$parent_exists) {
+      $parent_exists = $this->createDirectory($parent, $mode);
+    }
+
+    // If parent exists, try to create the directory and ensure to set its
+    // permissions, because mkdir() obeys the umask of the current process.
+    if ($parent_exists) {
+      // We hide warnings and ignore the return because there may have been a
+      // race getting here and the directory could already exist.
+      @mkdir($directory);
+      // Only try to chmod() if the subdirectory could be created.
+      if (is_dir($directory)) {
+        // Avoid writing permissions if possible.
+        if (fileperms($directory) !== $mode) {
+          return chmod($directory, $mode);
+        }
+        return TRUE;
       }
-      return $is_backwards_recursive ? TRUE : $status;
     }
-    // If the parent directory and the requested directory does not exist and
-    // could not be created above, walk the requested directory path back up
-    // until an existing directory is hit, and from there, recursively create
-    // the sub-directories. Only if that recursion succeeds, create the final,
-    // originally requested subdirectory.
-    return $this->createDirectory($parent, $mode, TRUE) && mkdir($directory) && chmod($directory, $mode);
+    // Something failed and the directory doesn't exist.
+    trigger_error('mkdir(): Permission Denied', E_USER_WARNING);
+    return FALSE;
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/core/tests/Drupal/Tests/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorageTest.php b/core/tests/Drupal/Tests/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorageTest.php
index 1426063078..4972a7419d 100644
--- a/core/tests/Drupal/Tests/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorageTest.php
+++ b/core/tests/Drupal/Tests/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorageTest.php
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 
 use Drupal\Component\PhpStorage\FileStorage;
 use Drupal\Component\Utility\Random;
+use org\bovigo\vfs\vfsStreamDirectory;
+use PHPUnit_Framework_Error_Warning;
 
 /**
  * @coversDefaultClass \Drupal\Component\PhpStorage\FileStorage
@@ -87,4 +89,18 @@ public function testDeleteAll() {
     unset($GLOBALS[$random]);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @covers ::createDirectory
+   */
+  function testCreateDirectoryFailWarning() {
+      $directory = new vfsStreamDirectory('permissionDenied', 0200);
+      $storage = new FileStorage([
+        'directory' => $directory->url(),
+        'bin' => 'test',
+      ]);
+      $code = "<?php\n echo 'here';";
+      $this->setExpectedException(PHPUnit_Framework_Error_Warning::class, 'mkdir(): Permission Denied');
+      $storage->save('subdirectory/foo.php', $code);
+  }
+
 }