diff --git a/mercurial/posix.py b/mercurial/posix.py
--- a/mercurial/posix.py
+++ b/mercurial/posix.py
@@ -181,7 +181,22 @@ def checkexec(path):
 
     try:
         EXECFLAGS = stat.S_IXUSR | stat.S_IXGRP | stat.S_IXOTH
-        cachedir = os.path.join(path, '.hg', 'cache')
+        basedir = os.path.join(path, '.hg')
+        cachedir = os.path.join(basedir, 'cache')
+        storedir = os.path.join(basedir, 'store')
+        if not os.path.exists(cachedir):
+            try:
+                # we want to create the 'cache' directory, not the '.hg' one.
+                # Automatically creating '.hg' directory could silently spawn
+                # invalid Mercurial repositories. That seems like a bad idea.
+                os.mkdir(cachedir)
+                if os.path.exists(storedir):
+                    copymode(storedir, cachedir)
+                else:
+                    copymode(basedir, cachedir)
+            except (IOError, OSError):
+                # we other fallback logic triggers
+                pass
         if os.path.isdir(cachedir):
             checkisexec = os.path.join(cachedir, 'checkisexec')
             checknoexec = os.path.join(cachedir, 'checknoexec')
diff --git a/tests/test-fncache.t b/tests/test-fncache.t
--- a/tests/test-fncache.t
+++ b/tests/test-fncache.t
@@ -88,6 +88,9 @@ Non store repo:
   .hg/00manifest.i
   .hg/cache
   .hg/cache/branch2-served
+  .hg/cache/checkisexec
+  .hg/cache/checklink
+  .hg/cache/checklink-target
   .hg/cache/manifestfulltextcache (reporevlogstore !)
   .hg/cache/rbc-names-v1
   .hg/cache/rbc-revs-v1
@@ -122,6 +125,9 @@ Non fncache repo:
   .hg/00changelog.i
   .hg/cache
   .hg/cache/branch2-served
+  .hg/cache/checkisexec
+  .hg/cache/checklink
+  .hg/cache/checklink-target
   .hg/cache/manifestfulltextcache (reporevlogstore !)
   .hg/cache/rbc-names-v1
   .hg/cache/rbc-revs-v1
diff --git a/tests/test-inherit-mode.t b/tests/test-inherit-mode.t
--- a/tests/test-inherit-mode.t
+++ b/tests/test-inherit-mode.t
@@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ new directories are setgid
   00600 ./.hg/00changelog.i
   00770 ./.hg/cache/
   00660 ./.hg/cache/branch2-served
+  00711 ./.hg/cache/checkisexec
+  00777 ./.hg/cache/checklink
+  00600 ./.hg/cache/checklink-target
   00660 ./.hg/cache/manifestfulltextcache (reporevlogstore !)
   00660 ./.hg/cache/rbc-names-v1
   00660 ./.hg/cache/rbc-revs-v1
diff --git a/tests/test-share.t b/tests/test-share.t
--- a/tests/test-share.t
+++ b/tests/test-share.t
@@ -22,16 +22,21 @@ share shouldn't have a store dir
   $ test -d .hg/store
   [1]
 
-share shouldn't have a cache dir, original repo should
+share shouldn't have a full cache dir, original repo should
 
   $ hg branches
   default                        0:d3873e73d99e
   $ hg tags
   tip                                0:d3873e73d99e
-  $ test -d .hg/cache
-  [1]
+  $ ls -1 .hg/cache
+  checkisexec
+  checklink
+  checklink-target
   $ ls -1 ../repo1/.hg/cache
   branch2-served
+  checkisexec
+  checklink
+  checklink-target
   manifestfulltextcache (reporevlogstore !)
   rbc-names-v1
   rbc-revs-v1