diff --git a/src/incremen.c b/src/incremen.c
index d946b0d2..8053283e 100644
--- a/src/incremen.c
+++ b/src/incremen.c
@@ -1660,19 +1660,10 @@ purge_directory (char const *directory_name)
       if (*arc == 'X')
 	{
 	  static char const TEMP_DIR_TEMPLATE[] = "tar.XXXXXX";
-	  idx_t topsize
-	    = one_top_level_dir ? strlen (one_top_level_dir) + 1 : 0;
 	  char *d = safer_name_suffix (arc + 1, false, absolute_names_option);
 	  idx_t len = strlen (d);
-	  temp_stub = xrealloc (temp_stub,
-				topsize + len + 1 + sizeof TEMP_DIR_TEMPLATE);
-	  char *copy_end = temp_stub;
-	  if (topsize)
-	    {
-	      copy_end = mempcpy (copy_end, one_top_level_dir, topsize - 1);
-	      *copy_end++ = '/';
-	    }
-	  copy_end = mempcpy (copy_end, d, len);
+	  temp_stub = xrealloc (temp_stub, len + 1 + sizeof TEMP_DIR_TEMPLATE);
+	  char *copy_end = mempcpy (temp_stub, d, len);
 	  *copy_end = '/';
 	  memcpy (copy_end + !ISSLASH (copy_end[-1]), TEMP_DIR_TEMPLATE,
 		  sizeof TEMP_DIR_TEMPLATE);