diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a7cd8c99e..d9b4f015d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
-/build/log/*
-!/build/log/README
+/build/*
diff --git a/build/log/README b/build/log/README
deleted file mode 100644
index 64e8e2a0f..000000000
--- a/build/log/README
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-The purpose for this directory is to store temporary logs and
-reports by test-runner, style-checkers or build-routines.
-
-"temporary" means in this case that the contents of this directory
-are completely ignored by Git.
diff --git a/test/js/checkswag.sh b/test/js/checkswag.sh
index b2b0fe8a5..9f1f6df4e 100755
--- a/test/js/checkswag.sh
+++ b/test/js/checkswag.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+# Make sure that the destination directory for logs and reports exists
+mkdir -p ../../build/log
+
 jshint --reporter=jslint "$@" ../.. > ../../build/log/jshint_results.xml
 
 exit 0
diff --git a/test/js/runtests.sh b/test/js/runtests.sh
index c5c4f4996..71eb52a48 100755
--- a/test/js/runtests.sh
+++ b/test/js/runtests.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+# Make sure that the destination directory for logs and reports exists
+mkdir -p ../../build/log
+
 mocha --reporter "xunit" --recursive "$@" . > ../../build/log/mocha_results.xml
 mocha --reporter "cobertura" --recursive "$@" . > ../../build/log/mocha_coverage.xml
 
diff --git a/test/php/checkswag.sh b/test/php/checkswag.sh
index 6f0ece381..f9e7c135c 100755
--- a/test/php/checkswag.sh
+++ b/test/php/checkswag.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+# Make sure that the destination directory for logs and reports exists
+mkdir -p ../../build/log
+
 phpcs -p --standard=PSR2 --extensions=php --encoding=utf-8 --report-checkstyle=../../build/log/phpcs_results.xml --ignore=vendor "$@" ../..
 
 exit 0
diff --git a/test/php/runtests.sh b/test/php/runtests.sh
index 7ea78fb11..aec3a0d49 100755
--- a/test/php/runtests.sh
+++ b/test/php/runtests.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+# Make sure that the destination directory for logs and reports exists
+mkdir -p ../../build/log
+
 phpunit "$@" .
 
 exit 0