diff -r 7dab8fd016c5 Lib/test/regrtest.py
--- a/Lib/test/regrtest.py	Thu Apr 16 01:42:19 2009 -0700
+++ b/Lib/test/regrtest.py	Thu Apr 16 02:17:15 2009 -0700
@@ -663,6 +663,7 @@
 
 def cleanup_test_droppings(testname, verbose):
     import shutil
+    import stat
 
     # Try to clean up junk commonly left behind.  While tests shouldn't leave
     # any files or directories behind, when a test fails that can be tedious
@@ -687,6 +688,10 @@
         if verbose:
             print("%r left behind %s %r" % (testname, kind, name))
         try:
+            # if we have chmod, fix possible permissions problems
+            # that might prevent cleanup
+            if (hasattr(os, 'chmod')):
+                os.chmod(name, stat.S_IRWXU | stat.S_IRWXG | stat.S_IRWXO)
             nuker(name)
         except Exception as msg:
             print(("%r left behind %s %r and it couldn't be "
diff -r 7dab8fd016c5 Lib/test/test_shutil.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_shutil.py	Thu Apr 16 01:42:19 2009 -0700
+++ b/Lib/test/test_shutil.py	Thu Apr 16 02:17:15 2009 -0700
@@ -45,9 +45,22 @@
             shutil.rmtree(TESTFN)
 
     def check_args_to_onerror(self, func, arg, exc):
+        # test_rmtree_errors deliberately runs rmtree
+        # on a directory that is chmod 400, which will fail.
+        # This function is run when shutil.rmtree fails.
+        # 99.9% of the time it initially fails to remove
+        # a file in the directory, so the first time through
+        # func is os.remove.
+        # However, some Linux machines running ZFS on
+        # FUSE experienced a failure earlier in the process
+        # at os.listdir.  The first failure may legally
+        # be either.
         if self.errorState == 0:
-            self.assertEqual(func, os.remove)
-            self.assertEqual(arg, self.childpath)
+            if func is os.remove:
+              self.assertEqual(arg, self.childpath)
+            else:
+              self.assertEqual(func, os.listdir, "func must be either os.remove or os.listdir")
+              self.assertEqual(arg, TESTFN)
             self.failUnless(issubclass(exc[0], OSError))
             self.errorState = 1
         else: