diff --git a/lib/std/tar.zig b/lib/std/tar.zig
index a5fbbed10421253277fdc72af8cf9278b9705816..5bca19f0bd4c8f69a21330563c3c80292b79df88 100644
--- a/lib/std/tar.zig
+++ b/lib/std/tar.zig
@@ -564,7 +564,7 @@ pub fn pipeToFileSystem(dir: std.fs.Dir, reader: anytype, options: Options) !voi
                 const link_name = file.link_name;
 
                 createDirAndSymlink(dir, link_name, file_name) catch |err| {
-                    const d = options.diagnostics orelse return err;
+                    const d = options.diagnostics orelse return error.UnableToCreateSymLink;
                     try d.errors.append(d.allocator, .{ .unable_to_create_sym_link = .{
                         .code = err,
                         .file_name = try d.allocator.dupe(u8, file_name),
diff --git a/lib/std/tar/test.zig b/lib/std/tar/test.zig
index e568adb539b3047db34430f768e325430f9e545d..be840f5ddc0987df75452831410c3f35e343a457 100644
--- a/lib/std/tar/test.zig
+++ b/lib/std/tar/test.zig
@@ -467,11 +467,15 @@ test "tar pipeToFileSystem" {
     var root = std.testing.tmpDir(.{ .no_follow = true });
     defer root.cleanup();
 
-    try tar.pipeToFileSystem(root.dir, fsb.reader(), .{
+    tar.pipeToFileSystem(root.dir, fsb.reader(), .{
         .mode_mode = .ignore,
         .strip_components = 1,
         .exclude_empty_directories = true,
-    });
+    }) catch |err| {
+        // Skip on platform which don't support symlinks
+        if (err == error.UnableToCreateSymLink) return error.SkipZigTest;
+        return err;
+    };
 
     try testing.expectError(error.FileNotFound, root.dir.statFile("empty"));
     try testing.expect((try root.dir.statFile("a/file")).kind == .file);