diff -r 22b6b59c70e6 -r 94e671589c0e Lib/importlib/_bootstrap.py
--- a/Lib/importlib/_bootstrap.py	Fri Mar 01 14:53:45 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/importlib/_bootstrap.py	Fri Mar 01 12:57:08 2013 -0500
@@ -1344,13 +1344,13 @@
         self._loaders = loaders
         # Base (directory) path
         self.path = path or '.'
-        self._path_mtime = -1
+        self._path_stat = (-1, 0)
         self._path_cache = set()
         self._relaxed_path_cache = set()
 
     def invalidate_caches(self):
-        """Invalidate the directory mtime."""
-        self._path_mtime = -1
+        """Invalidate the directory mtime and nlink."""
+        self._path_stat = (-1, 0)
 
     find_module = _find_module_shim
 
@@ -1360,12 +1360,13 @@
         is_namespace = False
         tail_module = fullname.rpartition('.')[2]
         try:
-            mtime = _os.stat(self.path).st_mtime
+            st = _os.stat(self.path)
+            path_stat = (st.st_mtime, st.st_nlink)
         except OSError:
-            mtime = -1
-        if mtime != self._path_mtime:
+            path_stat = (-1, 0)
+        if path_stat != self._path_stat:
             self._fill_cache()
-            self._path_mtime = mtime
+            self._path_stat = path_stat
         # tail_module keeps the original casing, for __file__ and friends
         if _relax_case():
             cache = self._relaxed_path_cache