Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

[...]

> No, we should change to code to use symlinks instead of
> file-copies first (and at the same time change it as I suggested,
> i.e. to only delete symlinks and empty directories).

How about the attached?  I've only tested it on a single-file package
(ntlm.el).  I could extend it to directories if the approach is what you
want.

Thomas