Index: Lib/shutil.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/shutil.py       (revision 59581)
+++ Lib/shutil.py       (working copy)
@@ -156,6 +156,16 @@
     elif onerror is None:
         def onerror(*args):
             raise
+
+    try:
+        if os.path.islink(path):
+            if ignore_errors:
+                return
+            else:
+                raise IOError('path can not be symbolic link')
+    except IOError, err:
+        onerror(os.path.islink, path, sys.exc_info())
+
     names = []
     try:
         names = os.listdir(path)
-------------------

How does this look? The error handling is slightly different for this
case because it can not continue if 'ignore_errors' is True. I will
update the doc if the code change is ok.

On Dec 20, 2007 12:43 PM, Guido van Rossum <report@bugs.python.org> wrote:
>
> Guido van Rossum added the comment:
>
> Thanks for the patch. I think it should raise IOError, not ValueError,
> and it should use the onerror() handling used for all other errors.
> Also, can you include an update for the docs in the Doc tree?
>
>
> __________________________________
> Tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue1669>
> __________________________________
>