diff --git a/src/maketools/install.headers b/src/maketools/install.headers
index b123c5e99eb1043fb42619876c562876e4a587e0..5720f9682dbbc02cb410de4c64680e0f6f70ecd3 100644
--- a/src/maketools/install.headers
+++ b/src/maketools/install.headers
@@ -8,15 +8,22 @@ shift
 
 script=""
 includedir=
-for dir in $*
+dirs=$*
+
+for dir in $dirs
 do
 script="$script"'
 s|^# *include *"'$dir'/|#include "../'$dir'/|'
 done
 export LC_ALL=C
 
-for file in */*.h
+for dir in $dirs
+do
+for file in $dir/*.h
 do
-  mkdir -p "$where/${file%/*}"
-  cat $file | sed "$script" > "$where/$file"
+  if test -e $file ; then
+    mkdir -p "$where/${file%/*}"
+    cat $file | sed "$script" > "$where/$file"
+  fi
+done
 done