What can I say, the following patch works for me - and passes the simple test I'm including.
Mind you, I didn't do any research to find out how to disable the test
on platforms like win32 where hard links are *supposed* to fail.
diff -urN tar-1.15.1/src/extract.c tar-1.15.1/src/extract.c
--- tar-1.15.1/src/extract.c
+++ tar-1.15.1/src/extract.c
@@ -923,6 +923,25 @@
struct stat st1, st2;
int e;
+ if (strip_name_components)
+ {
+ size_t prefix_len = stripped_prefix_len (link_name,
+ strip_name_components);
+ if (prefix_len == (size_t) -1)
+ {
+ WARN ((0, 0,
+ _("%s: Cannot hard link to `%s':"
+ " not extracted due to `--strip-components=%d'"),
+ quotearg_colon (file_name), link_name,
+ strip_name_components));
+ skip_member ();
+ if (backup_option)
+ undo_last_backup ();
+ break;
+ }
+ link_name += prefix_len;
+ }
+
/* MSDOS does not implement links. However, djgpp's link() actually
copies the file. */
status = link (link_name, file_name);
diff -urN tar-1.15.1.tests/testsuite.at tar-1.15.1.tests/testsuite.at
--- tar-1.15.1/tests/testsuite.at
+++ tar-1.15.1/tests/testsuite.at
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
m4_include([extrac03.at])
m4_include([extrac04.at])
m4_include([extrac05.at])
+m4_include([extrac06.at])
m4_include([gzip.at])
diff -urN tar-1.15.1/tests/extrac06.at tar-1.15.1/tests/extrac06.at
--- tar-1.15.1/tests/extrac06.at
+++ tar-1.15.1/tests/extrac06.at
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+# Process this file with autom4te to create testsuite. -*- Autotest -*-
+#
+# Test suite for GNU tar.
+# Written by Peter Samuelson, who abandons this file to the public domain.
+#
+# Test extraction of hard links with a --strip-components flag.
+
+AT_SETUP([extracting hard links])
+AT_KEYWORDS([extract06])
+
+AT_TAR_CHECK([
+mkdir blim blim/tibbek
+genfile --length 315 > blim/tibbek/garl
+ln blim/tibbek/garl blim/angofh
+tar cf archive blim || exit 1
+rm -r blim
+tar xvf archive --strip-components=1 | sort
+],
+[0],
+[blim/
+blim/angofh
+blim/tibbek/
+blim/tibbek/garl
+])
+
+AT_CLEANUP
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