diff --git a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
index ef3bf8b4110..f78f9ce03f5 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
@@ -843,6 +843,7 @@ class WriteTest(WriteTestBase):
         finally:
             os.chdir(cwd)
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(hasattr(os, 'symlink'), "needs os.symlink")
     def test_extractall_symlinks(self):
         # Test if extractall works properly when tarfile contains symlinks
         tempdir = os.path.join(TEMPDIR, "testsymlinks")