diff -r 63c5531cfdf7 Lib/test/support/__init__.py
--- a/Lib/test/support/__init__.py	Sat Jan 07 09:33:28 2017 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/support/__init__.py	Sat Jan 07 21:52:28 2017 +0100
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@
     "check_warnings", "check_no_resource_warning", "EnvironmentVarGuard",
     "run_with_locale", "swap_item",
     "swap_attr", "Matcher", "set_memlimit", "SuppressCrashReport", "sortdict",
-    "run_with_tz", "PGO", "missing_compiler_executable",
+    "run_with_tz", "PGO", "missing_compiler_executable", "os_link",
     ]
 
 class Error(Exception):
@@ -2573,6 +2573,14 @@
             return cmd[0]
 
 
+def os_link(src, dst, **kwds):
+    """Create a hard link, raising SkipTest if PermissionError is raised."""
+    try:
+        os.link(src, dst, **kwds)
+    except PermissionError:
+        raise unittest.SkipTest('cannot create a hard link')
+
+
 _is_android_emulator = None
 def setswitchinterval(interval):
     # Setting a very low gil interval on the Android emulator causes python
diff -r 63c5531cfdf7 Lib/test/test_os.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_os.py	Sat Jan 07 09:33:28 2017 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/test_os.py	Sat Jan 07 21:52:28 2017 +0100
@@ -1695,7 +1695,7 @@
     def _test_link(self, file1, file2):
         create_file(file1)
 
-        os.link(file1, file2)
+        support.os_link(file1, file2)
         with open(file1, "r") as f1, open(file2, "r") as f2:
             self.assertTrue(os.path.sameopenfile(f1.fileno(), f2.fileno()))
 
@@ -2793,7 +2793,8 @@
         """
         try:
             size = subprocess.check_output(['stty', 'size']).decode().split()
-        except (FileNotFoundError, subprocess.CalledProcessError):
+        except (FileNotFoundError, subprocess.CalledProcessError,
+                PermissionError):
             self.skipTest("stty invocation failed")
         expected = (int(size[1]), int(size[0])) # reversed order
 
@@ -3147,7 +3148,7 @@
         os.mkdir(dirname)
         filename = self.create_file("file.txt")
         if link:
-            os.link(filename, os.path.join(self.path, "link_file.txt"))
+            support.os_link(filename, os.path.join(self.path, "link_file.txt"))
         if symlink:
             os.symlink(dirname, os.path.join(self.path, "symlink_dir"),
                        target_is_directory=True)