#12183: merge with 3.2.
diff --git a/Doc/library/shutil.rst b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
index 799230c..6f70206 100644
--- a/Doc/library/shutil.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
@@ -101,8 +101,9 @@
:func:`copy2`.
If *symlinks* is true, symbolic links in the source tree are represented as
- symbolic links in the new tree; if false or omitted, the contents of the
- linked files are copied to the new tree.
+ symbolic links in the new tree, but the metadata of the original links is NOT
+ copied; if false or omitted, the contents and metadata of the linked files
+ are copied to the new tree.
When *symlinks* is false, if the file pointed by the symlink doesn't
exist, a exception will be added in the list of errors raised in