[GRASSLIST:6167] data directory manipulation?

[Greg Sepesi]

Greetings,

The spearfish sample data includes raw map data subdirectories ('dlg'
for USGS data, and 'TIGER' for census data) within the PERMANENT mapset,
which seems like a good place to store raw map data.  I'd like to setup
a location directory to do the same thing.  However it doesn't appear
that any of the g.* commands can make a directory, and the GRASS
documentation warns against manually manipulating the data directory.  

I'm hoping someone will direct me to a reference (or a source code file)
that describes what manual directory manipulation is allowed and what
isn't ... I suppose the reason for disallowance would be nice to know
also.

Regards,
Greg