What started as a 2 lines fix, grew to a patch of ~400 lines. :)

It's mostly tests though:

Lib/shutil.py           |  102 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
Lib/test/test_shutil.py |  220 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Misc/ACKS               |    1 +
3 files changed, 297 insertions(+), 26 deletions(-)

I've AFAIS implemented the desired behavior and hope for feedback/bug reports.

It's tested on Linux & FreeBSD 8.2 and applies cleanly against default/tip.

Please let me know if I've done something stupid.