diff --git a/doc/bugs/standalone_runshell_can_race_and_fail_to_remove___96____126____47__.cache__47__git-annex__47__locales__47____96___dirs/comment_4_5c2c6003b45d78b9e0bee95f5a12c48c._comment b/doc/bugs/standalone_runshell_can_race_and_fail_to_remove___96____126____47__.cache__47__git-annex__47__locales__47____96___dirs/comment_4_5c2c6003b45d78b9e0bee95f5a12c48c._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8e59c3c287
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/standalone_runshell_can_race_and_fail_to_remove___96____126____47__.cache__47__git-annex__47__locales__47____96___dirs/comment_4_5c2c6003b45d78b9e0bee95f5a12c48c._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="joey"
+ subject="""comment 4"""
+ date="2020-10-05T17:04:45Z"
+ content="""
+Hmm, that rm -rf is idempotent itself once the stderr is hidden;
+if a race causes one rm to fail the other one will probably succeed;
+if both manage to fail it ignores the nonzero exit code and, 
+the next run will clean up after it by running it again. AFAICS the cache
+eventually gets cleaned up in all circumstances.
+
+	rm: cannot remove '/home/yoh/.cache/git-annex/locales/bb375eb6ec0d2706f1723307f068911a': Directory not empty
+
+I think what happened there is, the first process created
+that cache directory, but had not yet written the base file
+when the second process ran. So the second process sees what looks like a
+cache directory with no base file, so it decides to clean it up. In the
+meantime the first process has written base and other files and so the rm
+fails. Also, the first process may succeed and end up running git-annex
+with some locale files missing (if the rm happened to delete those),
+resulting in incompatable system locales being used.
+
+So, it ought to defer cleaning up old caches until after it's made sure its
+current cache is all set up. Then that race goes away.
+
+But, there's a problem with this, that comes right after the main cache
+cleanup:
+
+	# If the locale cache for this bundle is out of date, refresh it.
+	if [ -e "$LOCPATH/buildid" ] && ! cmp "$LOCPATH/buildid" "$base/buildid" >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
+		rm -rf "$LOCPATH"
+	fi
+
+That runs if the git-annex.linux directory gets overwritten with a new version,
+so the cache is the same. And it's also prone to similar races. 
+I think, to fix this, it probably needs to use the buildid in the LOCPATH.
+"""]]
diff --git a/standalone/linux/skel/runshell b/standalone/linux/skel/runshell
index 90f262ca65..c63b05413c 100755
--- a/standalone/linux/skel/runshell
+++ b/standalone/linux/skel/runshell
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ unset LD_PRELOAD
 ORIG_LOCPATH="$LOCPATH"
 export ORIG_LOCPATH
 if [ -z "${LOCPATH+set}" ] && [ -z "$GIT_ANNEX_PACKAGE_INSTALL" ]; then
-	LOCPATH="$HOME/.cache/git-annex/locales/$(echo "$base" | tr / _ )"
+	LOCPATH="$HOME/.cache/git-annex/locales/$(cat "$base/buildid")_$(echo "$base" | tr / _ )"
 	# try to generate a short version, if md5sum is available
 	locpathmd5=$( (echo "$LOCPATH" | md5sum | cut -d ' ' -f 1 2>/dev/null) || true)
 	if [ -n "$locpathmd5" ]; then
@@ -149,24 +149,22 @@ if [ -z "${LOCPATH+set}" ] && [ -z "$GIT_ANNEX_PACKAGE_INSTALL" ]; then
 		fi
 	done
 	
-	# If the locale cache for this bundle is out of date, refresh it.
-	if [ -e "$LOCPATH/buildid" ] && ! cmp "$LOCPATH/buildid" "$base/buildid" >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
-		rm -rf "$LOCPATH"
+	if [ ! -d "$LOCPATH" ]; then
+		if ! mkdir -p "$LOCPATH"; then
+			echo "Unable to write to $LOCPATH; can't continue!" >&2
+			exit 1
+		fi
 	fi
-	if ! mkdir -p "$LOCPATH"; then
-		echo "Unable to write to $LOCPATH; can't continue!" >&2
-		exit 1
+	if [ ! -e "$LOCPATH/base" ]; then
+		echo "$base" > "$LOCPATH/base.$$"
+		mv -f "$LOCPATH/base.$$" "$LOCPATH/base"
+	fi
+	# Not using cp to avoid using the one bundled with git-annex
+	# before the environment is set up to run it.
+	if [ ! -e "$LOCPATH/buildid" ]; then
+		cat < "$base/buildid" > "$LOCPATH/buildid.$$"
+		mv -f "$LOCPATH/buildid.$$" "$LOCPATH/buildid"
 	fi
-	# This is updated each time, because the bundle could be moved to a
-	# different directory.
-	echo "$base" > "$LOCPATH/base.$$"
-	mv -f "$LOCPATH/base.$$" "$LOCPATH/base"
-	# This is updated each time, because the bundle could be updated
-	# in place to a new version.
-	# Not using cp to avoid using the one bundled with git-annex before
-	# the environment is set up to run it.
-	cat < "$base/buildid" > "$LOCPATH/buildid.$$"
-	mv -f "$LOCPATH/buildid.$$" "$LOCPATH/buildid"
 
 	# Generate locale definition files for the locales in use,
 	# using the localedef and locale files from the bundle.