diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 862b461..bfd1944 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Tiny and easy-to-use C library to parse tar (specifically, the newer [USTAR](htt
 
 No third-party dependencies, only a minimally capable standard C library (pretty much only requires a basic subset of the C FILE API, apart from other simple functions). 
 
-Aims to be bloat-free (currently less than 500 LoC), fast and optimized, and as portable between systems as possible (has its own implementation of some non-standard functions, such as [strlcpy](https://linux.die.net/man/3/strlcpy) or [basename](https://linux.die.net/man/3/basename)).
+Aims to be bloat-free (currently just above 500 LoC), fast and optimized, and as portable between systems as possible (has its own implementation of some non-standard functions, such as [strlcpy](https://linux.die.net/man/3/strlcpy) or [basename](https://linux.die.net/man/3/basename)).
 
 Does not include support for compressed archives. You'll have to pass those through another program or library to decompress them before minitar can handle them.
 
diff --git a/docs/API.md b/docs/API.md
index 21c917f..a9050c5 100644
--- a/docs/API.md
+++ b/docs/API.md
@@ -75,7 +75,9 @@ This enum lists all supported file types:
 
 `MTAR_DIRECTORY`: Directories
 
-Other file types supported in tar archives, such as block/character devices, FIFOs, or symlinks, are not supported and minitar will throw an error when encountering one of them. This behavior can be controlled by passing `-DMINITAR_IGNORE_UNSUPPORTED_TYPES=ON` to CMake when configuring, which will make minitar silently ignore such entries instead of panicking.
+`MTAR_SYMLINK`: Symbolic links
+
+Other file types supported in tar archives, such as block/character devices, FIFOs, or hard links, are not supported and minitar will throw an error when encountering one of them. This behavior can be controlled by passing `-DMINITAR_IGNORE_UNSUPPORTED_TYPES=ON` to CMake when configuring, which will make minitar silently ignore such entries instead of panicking.
 
 ### minitar_entry_metadata
 `struct minitar_entry_metadata`
@@ -86,6 +88,8 @@ This structure represents an entry's metadata, with the following fields:
 
 `name`: A string representing the base name of the entry (the last component of its path). (`char[]`)
 
+`link`: A string representing the file being linked to. (Only applies to symlinks) (`char[]`)
+
 `mode`: An integer representing the permissions of the entry. (`mode_t`)
 
 `uid`: An integer representing the user ID of the entry's owner. (`uid_t`)
diff --git a/examples/untar.c b/examples/untar.c
index 040942d..e1b23d9 100644
--- a/examples/untar.c
+++ b/examples/untar.c
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
  * untar.c: Example utility which extracts files from a tar archive (POSIX only).
  */
 
+#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 700
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
 #include <minitar.h>
@@ -85,6 +86,18 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
 
                 printf("untar %s\n", entry.metadata.path);
             }
+            else if (entry.metadata.type == MTAR_SYMLINK)
+            {
+                int status = symlink(entry.metadata.link, entry.metadata.path);
+
+                if (status != 0)
+                {
+                    fprintf(stderr, "Failed to create symlink %s: %s\n", entry.metadata.path, strerror(errno));
+                    break;
+                }
+
+                printf("symlink %s -> %s\n", entry.metadata.path, entry.metadata.link);
+            }
         }
         else
             break;
diff --git a/minitar.h b/minitar.h
index 2fbf1f3..6f673ab 100644
--- a/minitar.h
+++ b/minitar.h
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ struct minitar
 enum minitar_file_type
 {
     MTAR_REGULAR,
-    MTAR_DIRECTORY
+    MTAR_DIRECTORY,
+    MTAR_SYMLINK
 };
 
 struct minitar_entry_internal
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ struct minitar_entry_metadata
 {
     char path[257];
     char name[128];
+    char link[101];
     mode_t mode;
     uid_t uid;
     gid_t gid;
diff --git a/src/util.c b/src/util.c
index 445f242..703b4dd 100644
--- a/src/util.c
+++ b/src/util.c
@@ -162,6 +162,8 @@ void minitar_parse_metadata_from_tar_header(const struct tar_header* hdr, struct
         metadata->path[256] = '\0';
     }
 
+    minitar_strlcpy(metadata->link, hdr->linkname, 101);
+
     minitar_parse_basename(metadata->path, metadata->name, sizeof(metadata->name));
 
     // Numeric fields in tar archives are stored as octal-encoded ASCII strings. Weird decision (supposedly for
@@ -185,7 +187,7 @@ void minitar_parse_metadata_from_tar_header(const struct tar_header* hdr, struct
     case '\0':
     case '0': metadata->type = MTAR_REGULAR; break;
     case '1': minitar_handle_panic("Links to other files within a tar archive are unsupported");
-    case '2': minitar_handle_panic("Symbolic links are unsupported");
+    case '2': metadata->type = MTAR_SYMLINK; break;
     case '3': minitar_handle_panic("Character devices are unsupported");
     case '4': minitar_handle_panic("Block devices are unsupported");
     case '5': metadata->type = MTAR_DIRECTORY; break;
@@ -226,7 +228,7 @@ uint32_t minitar_checksum_header(const struct tar_header* hdr)
 int minitar_validate_header(const struct tar_header* hdr)
 {
 #ifdef MINITAR_IGNORE_UNSUPPORTED_TYPES
-    if (hdr->typeflag != '\0' && hdr->typeflag != '0' && hdr->typeflag != '5') return 0;
+    if (hdr->typeflag != '\0' && hdr->typeflag != '0' && hdr->typeflag != '2' && hdr->typeflag != '5') return 0;
 #else
     if (hdr->typeflag != '\0' && hdr->typeflag != '0' && hdr->typeflag != '1' && hdr->typeflag != '2' &&
         hdr->typeflag != '3' && hdr->typeflag != '4' && hdr->typeflag != '5' && hdr->typeflag != '6')