As per:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2012-May/015104.html
Patch is in attachment.

I'm not sure filemode() is the best name for this. On the other hand, I don't have any suggestion.
I don't understand why you're using atexit. tearDown() and addCleanup() are your friends.
The call_safely thing also looks unwarranted. support.unlink() should be able to help you.

1. After careful check, I am convince that converted _filemode_table (now private) is correct. Ditto for copied filemode function with adjusted docstring.

2. New test_stat.py is nice. I believe there is a new style of actually running the tests that somehow collects the list of TestCase subclasses without having to hand edit the run_unittest() call when new ones are added. I think it was briefly discussed on pydev list, but remenber nothing else.

I mention this because I wonder if you think stat should have more tests (and TestCase classes). If so, a new issue could be opened after this is applied and mentioned on mentor list as an entry level issue for newer contributors.

3. I think the back compatibility alias should be wrapped with a deprecation warning. I believe the standard method would be something like the following

import warnings
def filemode(mode):
    "Deprecated in this location; use stat.filemode."
    warnings.warn("The undocumented tarfile.filemode function\n"
                  "has been moved to stat and documented there.",
                   DeprecationWarning, 2)
    return stat.filemode(mode)

Removal could be scheduled for 3.5 if not 3.4. There apparently is a way (unknown to me) to add a test that will fail in the future as a reminder.

4. Misc/NEWS entry suggestion:

• bpo-14807: Move undocumented tarfile.filemode() to stat.filemode() and add doc entry. Add tarfile.filemode alias with deprecation warning. Schedule alias for removal in 3.5.

5. stat module doc entry.

Updated patch in attachment.

Looks good enough to me except for the alias docstring. If someone does dir(tarfile) and help(filemode), they should get the message that it is a deprecated alias and should not use it.

New changeset 492e6c6a01bb by Giampaolo Rodola' in branch 'default':
bpo-14807: move undocumented tarfile.filemode() to stat.filemode(). Add tarfile.filemode alias with deprecation warning.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/492e6c6a01bb

Buildbot failures:
http://www.python.org/dev/buildbot/all/builders/AMD64%20FreeBSD%209.0%203.x/builds/2540
http://www.python.org/dev/buildbot/all/builders/x86%20Tiger%203.x/builds/4572

New changeset 539fbd6e58f6 by Giampaolo Rodola' in branch 'default':
bpo-14807: fix bb failure due to symlink test relying on hard-coded permissions
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/539fbd6e58f6

Thanks. It should now be fixed.

And there are test failures under Windows too :)

======================================================================
ERROR: test_link (test.test_stat.TestFilemode)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows\build\lib\test\test_stat.py", line 42, in test_link
    os.symlink(os.getcwd(), TESTFN)
NotImplementedError: CreateSymbolicLinkW not found

======================================================================
FAIL: test_directory (test.test_stat.TestFilemode)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows\build\lib\test\test_stat.py", line 38, in test_directory
    self.assertEqual(get_mode(), 'drwx------')
AssertionError: 'drwxrwxrwx' != 'drwx------'
- drwxrwxrwx
+ drwx------

======================================================================
FAIL: test_mode (test.test_stat.TestFilemode)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\cygwin\home\db3l\buildarea\3.x.bolen-windows\build\lib\test\test_stat.py", line 27, in test_mode
    self.assertEqual(get_mode(), '-rwx------')
AssertionError: '-rw-rw-rw-' != '-rwx------'
- -rw-rw-rw-
+ -rwx

http://www.python.org/dev/buildbot/all/builders/x86%20Windows7%203.x/builds/4962/steps/test/logs/stdio

New changeset 39d24533c6b7 by Giampaolo Rodola' in branch 'default':
bpo-14807: fix BB failures on Windows - avoid to to rely too many details of the mode string.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/39d24533c6b7

Let's see how it goes now.

Previous issue should have been fixed by now.
Closing.