Index: Lib/tarfile.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/tarfile.py	(revision 81563)
+++ Lib/tarfile.py	(working copy)
@@ -1884,7 +1884,7 @@
         tarinfo.mode = stmd
         tarinfo.uid = statres.st_uid
         tarinfo.gid = statres.st_gid
-        if stat.S_ISREG(stmd):
+        if stat.S_ISREG(stmd) and type != LNKTYPE:
             tarinfo.size = statres.st_size
         else:
             tarinfo.size = 0L
Index: Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	(revision 81563)
+++ Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	(working copy)
@@ -662,12 +662,15 @@
         if hasattr(os, "link"):
             link = os.path.join(TEMPDIR, "link")
             target = os.path.join(TEMPDIR, "link_target")
-            open(target, "wb").close()
+            f = open(target, "wb")
+            f.write("test_link_size")
+            f.close()
             os.link(target, link)
             try:
                 tar = tarfile.open(tmpname, self.mode)
-                tarinfo = tar.gettarinfo(link)
-                self.assertEqual(tarinfo.size, 0)
+                linkinfo = tar.gettarinfo(link)
+                targetinfo = tar.gettarinfo(target)
+                self.assertTrue(linkinfo.size == 0 or targetinfo.size == 0)
             finally:
                 os.remove(target)
                 os.remove(link)