diff --git a/groff.spec b/groff.spec
index 9ed6000..9912087 100644
--- a/groff.spec
+++ b/groff.spec
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 Summary: A document formatting system
 Name: groff
 Version: 1.21
-Release: 4%{?dist}
+Release: 5%{?dist}
 License: GPLv3+ and GFDL and BSD and MIT
 Group: Applications/Publishing
 URL: http://groff.ffii.org
@@ -169,6 +169,16 @@ if [ $1 = 0 ]; then
 	/sbin/install-info --delete %{_infodir}/%{name}.info %{_infodir}/dir || :
 fi
 
+%pretrans base
+if [ $1 = 0 ]; then
+	# workaround rpm bug (replacing directory with symlink fails)
+	for confdir in site-font site-tmac; do
+		[ ! -h %{_datadir}/%{name}/$confdir -a -d %{_datadir}/%{name}/$confdir  ] && \
+		rm -rf %{_datadir}/%{name}/$confdir
+	done
+	exit 0
+fi
+
 %files
 %defattr(-,root,root,-)
 # data
@@ -421,6 +431,9 @@ fi
 %doc %{_docdir}/%{name}-%{version}/pdf/
 
 %changelog
+* Tue Sep 20 2011 Jan Vcelak <jvcelak@redhat.com> 1.21-5
+- fix #739318: fix upgrade from previous versions (workaround for RPM bug)
+
 * Fri Sep 16 2011 Jan Vcelak <jvcelak@redhat.com> 1.21-4
 - new subpackage: groff-base (minimal for manual page rendering)
 - move shared data used by gxditview to groff-x11 subpackage