diff --git a/pgxn/neon/pagestore_smgr.c b/pgxn/neon/pagestore_smgr.c
index 6fe95df3dd..ae92be4577 100644
--- a/pgxn/neon/pagestore_smgr.c
+++ b/pgxn/neon/pagestore_smgr.c
@@ -4176,8 +4176,10 @@ neon_start_unlogged_build(SMgrRelation reln)
 	 * FIXME: should we pass isRedo true to create the tablespace dir if it
 	 * doesn't exist? Is it needed?
 	 */
-	if (!IsParallelWorker())
+#ifndef DEBUG_COMPARE_LOCAL
+ 	if (!IsParallelWorker())
 		mdcreate(reln, MAIN_FORKNUM, false);
+#endif
 }
 
 /*
@@ -4252,8 +4254,10 @@ neon_end_unlogged_build(SMgrRelation reln)
 
 			forget_cached_relsize(InfoFromNInfoB(rinfob), forknum);
 			mdclose(reln, forknum);
+#ifndef DEBUG_COMPARE_LOCAL
 			/* use isRedo == true, so that we drop it immediately */
 			mdunlink(rinfob, forknum, true);
+#endif
 		}
 	}