diff --git a/lib/ansible/constants.py b/lib/ansible/constants.py
index a1a26b70f31..0c4025ab27c 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/constants.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/constants.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ from ansible.compat.six.moves import configparser
 
 from ansible.parsing.quoting import unquote
 from ansible.errors import AnsibleOptionsError
+from ansible.utils.path import makedirs_safe
 
 # copied from utils, avoid circular reference fun :)
 def mk_boolean(value):
@@ -75,7 +76,7 @@ def get_config(p, section, key, env_var, default, boolean=False, integer=False,
         elif istmppath:
             value = shell_expand(value)
             if not os.path.exists(value):
-                os.makedirs(value, 0o700)
+                makedirs_safe(value, 0o700)
             prefix = 'ansible-local-%s' % os.getpid()
             value = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix=prefix, dir=value)
         elif ispathlist:
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/path.py b/lib/ansible/utils/path.py
index 1fe62e85940..a89dc0a95b3 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/path.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/path.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ def unfrackpath(path):
     example:
     '$HOME/../../var/mail' becomes '/var/spool/mail'
     '''
-    return os.path.normpath(os.path.realpath(os.path.expandvars(os.path.expanduser(path))))
+    return os.path.normpath(os.path.realpath(os.path.expanduser(os.path.expandvars(path))))
 
 def makedirs_safe(path, mode=None):
     '''Safe way to create dirs in muliprocess/thread environments'''