diff --git a/docs/development/setup-advanced.md b/docs/development/setup-advanced.md
index 6fdda879bf..afa0332a1d 100644
--- a/docs/development/setup-advanced.md
+++ b/docs/development/setup-advanced.md
@@ -224,8 +224,6 @@ Now run these commands:
 ```
 sudo ./scripts/lib/install-node
 yarn install
-sudo mkdir /srv/zulip-emoji-cache
-sudo chown -R `whoami`: /srv/zulip-emoji-cache
 ./tools/setup/emoji/build_emoji
 ./scripts/setup/inline_email_css.py
 ./tools/setup/build_pygments_data
diff --git a/tools/lib/provision_inner.py b/tools/lib/provision_inner.py
index 936c093589..2543898086 100755
--- a/tools/lib/provision_inner.py
+++ b/tools/lib/provision_inner.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import shutil
 ZULIP_PATH = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))))
 
 sys.path.append(ZULIP_PATH)
-from scripts.lib.zulip_tools import run, run_as_root, OKBLUE, ENDC, \
+from scripts.lib.zulip_tools import run, OKBLUE, ENDC, \
     get_dev_uuid_var_path, file_or_package_hash_updated
 
 from version import PROVISION_VERSION
@@ -16,15 +16,6 @@ from version import PROVISION_VERSION
 from tools.setup.generate_zulip_bots_static_files import generate_zulip_bots_static_files
 
 VENV_PATH = "/srv/zulip-py3-venv"
-
-is_travis = 'TRAVIS' in os.environ
-
-# TODO: De-duplicate this with emoji_dump.py
-EMOJI_CACHE_PATH = "/srv/zulip-emoji-cache"
-if is_travis:
-    # In Travis CI, we don't have root access
-    EMOJI_CACHE_PATH = "/home/travis/zulip-emoji-cache"
-
 UUID_VAR_PATH = get_dev_uuid_var_path()
 
 def create_var_directories() -> None:
@@ -156,9 +147,6 @@ def main(options: argparse.Namespace) -> int:
     # The `build_emoji` script requires `emoji-datasource` package
     # which we install via npm; thus this step is after installing npm
     # packages.
-    if not os.access(EMOJI_CACHE_PATH, os.W_OK):
-        run_as_root(["mkdir", "-p", EMOJI_CACHE_PATH])
-        run_as_root(["chown", "%s:%s" % (os.getuid(), os.getgid()), EMOJI_CACHE_PATH])
     run(["tools/setup/emoji/build_emoji"])
 
     # copy over static files from the zulip_bots package
diff --git a/tools/setup/emoji/build_emoji b/tools/setup/emoji/build_emoji
index 9b736a41ab..a70e9d16d3 100755
--- a/tools/setup/emoji/build_emoji
+++ b/tools/setup/emoji/build_emoji
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ from emoji_names import EMOJI_NAME_MAPS
 ZULIP_PATH = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), '../../../')
 sys.path.append(ZULIP_PATH)
 
-from scripts.lib.zulip_tools import generate_sha1sum_emoji
+from scripts.lib.zulip_tools import generate_sha1sum_emoji, run_as_root
 
 TARGET_EMOJI_DUMP = os.path.join(ZULIP_PATH, 'static', 'generated', 'emoji')
 TARGET_EMOJI_STYLES = os.path.join(ZULIP_PATH, 'static', 'generated', 'emoji-styles')
@@ -77,6 +77,14 @@ if 'TRAVIS' in os.environ:
     EMOJI_CACHE_PATH = "/home/travis/zulip-emoji-cache"
 
 def main() -> None:
+    if not os.access(EMOJI_CACHE_PATH, os.W_OK):
+        # Note: In production, this block will fail, since we don't
+        # assume sudo access; but it should never run in production
+        # anyway, because EMOJI_CACHE_PATH is created by puppet before
+        # build_emoji would be run.
+        run_as_root(["mkdir", "-p", EMOJI_CACHE_PATH])
+        run_as_root(["chown", "%s:%s" % (os.getuid(), os.getgid()), EMOJI_CACHE_PATH])
+
     sha1_hexdigest = generate_sha1sum_emoji(ZULIP_PATH)
     source_emoji_dump = os.path.join(EMOJI_CACHE_PATH, sha1_hexdigest, 'emoji')
     success_stamp = os.path.join(source_emoji_dump, '.success-stamp')