diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 19b8a966..ca3b5c7b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 xbps-0.9.1 (???):
 
+ * xbps-repo(8): the 'genindex' target creates required directories
+   in local repositories if it's necessary. Fixes issue #3 in
+   github.com/vanilla/xbps.
+
  * xbps-repo(8): the 'search' target now matches patterns in
-   case insensitive mode.
+   case insensitive mode. Fixes issue #2 on github.com/vanilla/xbps.
 
  * A bug has been fixed while updating a package and another package
    providing a virtual package with a greater version was available
diff --git a/bin/xbps-repo/index.c b/bin/xbps-repo/index.c
index 3c7db16d..4893acf8 100644
--- a/bin/xbps-repo/index.c
+++ b/bin/xbps-repo/index.c
@@ -281,6 +281,18 @@ xbps_repo_genindex(const char *pkgdir)
 			rv = errno;
 			goto out;
 		}
+		/*
+		 * If repo/<noarch|un.machine> does not exist,
+		 * create it.
+		 */
+		if ((access(path, X_OK) == -1) && errno == ENOENT) {
+			if (xbps_mkpath(path, 0755) == -1) {
+				xbps_error_printf("xbps-repo: cannot "
+				    "create %s directory: %s\n",
+				    path, strerror(errno));
+				return -1;
+			}
+		}
 
 		dirp = opendir(path);
 		if (dirp == NULL) {