diff --git a/mercurial/posix.py b/mercurial/posix.py
--- a/mercurial/posix.py
+++ b/mercurial/posix.py
@@ -135,6 +135,18 @@ def checkexec(path):
         return False
     return not (new_file_has_exec or exec_flags_cannot_flip)
 
+def checklink(path):
+    """check whether the given path is on a symlink-capable filesystem"""
+    # mktemp is not racy because symlink creation will fail if the
+    # file already exists
+    name = tempfile.mktemp(dir=path, prefix='hg-checklink-')
+    try:
+        os.symlink(".", name)
+        os.unlink(name)
+        return True
+    except (OSError, AttributeError):
+        return False
+
 def set_binary(fd):
     pass
 
diff --git a/mercurial/util.py b/mercurial/util.py
--- a/mercurial/util.py
+++ b/mercurial/util.py
@@ -683,18 +683,6 @@ def fspath(name, root):
 
     return ''.join(result)
 
-def checklink(path):
-    """check whether the given path is on a symlink-capable filesystem"""
-    # mktemp is not racy because symlink creation will fail if the
-    # file already exists
-    name = tempfile.mktemp(dir=path, prefix='hg-checklink-')
-    try:
-        os.symlink(".", name)
-        os.unlink(name)
-        return True
-    except (OSError, AttributeError):
-        return False
-
 def checknlink(testfile):
     '''check whether hardlink count reporting works properly'''
 
diff --git a/mercurial/windows.py b/mercurial/windows.py
--- a/mercurial/windows.py
+++ b/mercurial/windows.py
@@ -135,6 +135,9 @@ def set_flags(f, l, x):
 def checkexec(path):
     return False
 
+def checklink(path):
+    return False
+
 def set_binary(fd):
     # When run without console, pipes may expose invalid
     # fileno(), usually set to -1.