diff --git a/bin/mkdir b/bin/mkdir
index ee9964d3..fd30d4ac 100755
--- a/bin/mkdir
+++ b/bin/mkdir
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ use strict;
 use File::Basename qw(basename dirname);
 use Getopt::Std qw(getopts);
 
-our $VERSION = '1.3';
+our $VERSION = '1.4';
 my $Program = basename($0);
 
 $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { warn "$Program: @_\n" };
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ foreach my $directory (@ARGV) {
 
     my $realmode = $options{'m'};
     if ($symbolic) {
-        $realmode = mod($options{'m'}, $dir) or
+        $realmode = mod($options{'m'}) or
                        die "invalid mode: $options{m}\n";
     }
     chmod oct($realmode) => $dir or warn "$!\n";
@@ -145,18 +145,12 @@ exit($err ? EX_ERROR : EX_SUCCESS);
 #
 #
 
-sub mod ($$) {
+sub mod {
     my $symbolic     = shift;
     my $file         = shift;
 
-    # Initialization.
-    # The 'user', 'group' and 'other' groups.
-    my @ugo          = qw /u g o/;
-    # Bit masks for '[sg]uid', 'sticky', 'read', 'write' and 'execute'.
-    # Can't use qw // cause silly Perl doesn't know '2' is a number
-    # when dealing with &= ~$bit.
-    my %bits         = (s => 8, t => 8, r => 4, w => 2, x => 1);
-
+    my @ugo          = qw/u g o/;
+    my %bits         = ('s' => 8, 't' => 8, 'r' => 4, 'w' => 2, 'x' => 1);
 
     # For parsing.
     my $who_re       = '[augo]*';
@@ -164,7 +158,13 @@ sub mod ($$) {
 
 
     # Find the current permissions. This is what we start with.
-    my $mode         = sprintf "%04o" => (stat $file) [2] || 0;
+    my $mode = '777';
+    if ($symbolic =~ m/[\-\+]/) {
+        my @st = stat $file;
+        if (@st) {
+            $mode = sprintf '%04o', $st[2];
+        }
+    }
     my $current      = substr $mode => -3;  # rwx permissions for ugo.
 
     my %perms;
@@ -248,6 +248,9 @@ sub mod ($$) {
                 else      {%perms             = %umask;}
                 next;
             }
+            if ($operator eq '=') {
+                $perms{$who} = 0;
+            }
 
             # If we arrive here, $perms is a string.
             # We can iterate over the characters.
@@ -308,9 +311,8 @@ sub mod ($$) {
 
                 # Apply.
                 foreach my $s (@set) {
-                    do {$perms {$s} |=  $bit; next} if $operator eq '+';
+                    do {$perms {$s} |=  $bit; next} if ($operator eq '+' || $operator eq '=');
                     do {$perms {$s} &= ~$bit; next} if $operator eq '-';
-                    do {$perms {$s}  =  $bit; next} if $operator eq '=';
                     die "Weird operator `$operator' found\n";
                                                             # Should not happen.
                 }