diff --git a/Lib/tarfile.py b/Lib/tarfile.py
index 8c2d26b..98ae12f 100644
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py
@@ -1880,7 +1880,7 @@
         tarinfo.mode = stmd
         tarinfo.uid = statres.st_uid
         tarinfo.gid = statres.st_gid
-        if stat.S_ISREG(stmd):
+        if type == REGTYPE:
             tarinfo.size = statres.st_size
         else:
             tarinfo.size = 0L