diff --git a/share/functions/fish_update_completions.fish b/share/functions/fish_update_completions.fish
index 16c1f4587..544083fc6 100644
--- a/share/functions/fish_update_completions.fish
+++ b/share/functions/fish_update_completions.fish
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ function fish_update_completions --description "Update man-page based completion
         - \
         # Use the manpath
         --manpath \
+        --directory=$__fish_cache_dir/generated_completions \
         # Clean up old completions
-        --cleanup-in $__fish_user_data_dir/generated_completions \
-        --cleanup-in $__fish_cache_dir/generated_completions
+        --cleanup-in $__fish_user_data_dir/generated_completions
 
     status get-file tools/create_manpage_completions.py |
         if $detach
diff --git a/share/tools/create_manpage_completions.py b/share/tools/create_manpage_completions.py
index cc990fbb6..03903dfdd 100755
--- a/share/tools/create_manpage_completions.py
+++ b/share/tools/create_manpage_completions.py
@@ -2231,6 +2231,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         args.directory = os.path.expanduser(
             xdg_cache_home + "/fish/generated_completions/"
         )
+    if not args.stdout:
         try:
             os.makedirs(args.directory)
         except OSError as e:
diff --git a/tests/checks/fish_update_completions.fish b/tests/checks/fish_update_completions.fish
index 7d2a23d94..af878c1ac 100644
--- a/tests/checks/fish_update_completions.fish
+++ b/tests/checks/fish_update_completions.fish
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ end each output line with NUL, not newline
 '
 
 MANPATH=$PWD/man fish_update_completions
-# CHECK: Parsing man pages and writing completions to {{.*}}/generated_completions/
+# CHECK: Parsing man pages and writing completions to {{.*}}/generated_completions
 # CHECK: {{.*}}  1 / 1 : dirname.1{{.*}}
 
 cd $__fish_cache_dir