diff --git a/tests/deploy.TestCase b/tests/deploy.TestCase
index 35697548..00a62888 100755
--- a/tests/deploy.TestCase
+++ b/tests/deploy.TestCase
@@ -539,13 +539,6 @@ class DeployTest(unittest.TestCase):
         url = "example.com:/var/www/fdroid"
         repo_section = 'archive'
 
-        os.mkdir(repo_section)
-        fake_files = fdroidserver.deploy.INDEX_FILES
-        for filename in fake_files:
-            fake_file = Path(repo_section) / filename
-            with fake_file.open('w') as fp:
-                fp.write('not a real one, but has the right filename')
-
         # setup function for asserting subprocess.call invocations
         call_iteration = 0
 
@@ -597,10 +590,18 @@ class DeployTest(unittest.TestCase):
             call_iteration += 1
             return 0
 
-        with mock.patch('subprocess.call', side_effect=update_server_webroot_call):
-            fdroidserver.deploy.update_serverwebroot(
-                {'url': url, 'index_only': True}, repo_section
-            )
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir, TmpCwd(tmpdir):
+            with mock.patch('subprocess.call', side_effect=update_server_webroot_call):
+                os.mkdir(repo_section)
+                fake_files = fdroidserver.deploy.INDEX_FILES
+                for filename in fake_files:
+                    fake_file = Path(repo_section) / filename
+                    with fake_file.open('w') as fp:
+                        fp.write('not a real one, but has the right filename')
+
+                fdroidserver.deploy.update_serverwebroot(
+                    {'url': url, 'index_only': True}, repo_section
+                )
         self.assertEqual(call_iteration, 1, 'expected 1 invocations of subprocess.call')
 
     @unittest.skipIf(