diff -r 6d278f426417 Lib/distutils/tests/test_sdist.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_sdist.py	Fri Jul 05 18:05:29 2013 -1000
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_sdist.py	Sat Jul 06 14:21:35 2013 +0200
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 except ImportError:
     ZLIB_SUPPORT = False
 
+SYMLINK_SUPPORT = hasattr(os, 'symlink') and callable(os.symlink)
 
 from distutils.command.sdist import sdist, show_formats
 from distutils.core import Distribution
@@ -425,6 +426,18 @@
         self.assertEqual(sorted(filenames), ['fake-1.0', 'fake-1.0/PKG-INFO',
                                              'fake-1.0/README.manual'])
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(SYMLINK_SUPPORT, 'Need os.symlink available to run')
+    def test_dangling_symlinks(self):
+        readme = join(self.tmp_dir, 'README')
+        os.unlink(readme)
+        os.symlink('non-existent', readme)
+        dist, cmd = self.get_cmd()
+        cmd.formats = ['tar']
+        cmd.ensure_finalized()
+        cmd.run()
+        self.assertIn('README', cmd.filelist.files)
+
+
 def test_suite():
     return unittest.makeSuite(SDistTestCase)