diff --git a/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh b/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh
index 660f94e1b..3830fa49d 100644
--- a/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/lib/test-lib.sh
@@ -363,10 +363,31 @@ generic_stat() {
     FreeBSD | Darwin | DragonFly)
       _STAT="stat -f %Sp"
       ;;
+    *)
+        echo "unsupported OS" >&2
+        exit 1
+        ;;
   esac
   $_STAT "$1" || echo "failed" # Avoid returning nothing.
 }
 
+# output a file's permission in human readable format
+file_size() {
+    case $(uname -s) in
+        Linux)
+            _STAT="stat --format=%s"
+            ;;
+        FreeBSD | Darwin | DragonFly)
+            _STAT="stat -f%z"
+            ;;
+        *)
+            echo "unsupported OS" >&2
+            exit 1
+            ;;
+    esac
+    $_STAT "$1"
+}
+
 test_check_peerid() {
   peeridlen=$(echo "$1" | tr -dC "[:alnum:]" | wc -c | tr -d " ") &&
   test "$peeridlen" = "46" || {
diff --git a/test/sharness/t0088-repo-stat-symlink.sh b/test/sharness/t0088-repo-stat-symlink.sh
index 405d8ac5b..e38f7c7c2 100755
--- a/test/sharness/t0088-repo-stat-symlink.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/t0088-repo-stat-symlink.sh
@@ -15,14 +15,11 @@ test_expect_success "create symbolic link for IPFS_PATH" '
 
 test_init_ipfs
 
-# compare RepoSize when getting it directly vs via symbolic link
+# ensure that the RepoSize is reasonable when checked via a symlink.
 test_expect_success "'ipfs repo stat' RepoSize is correct with sym link" '
-  export IPFS_PATH="sym_link_target" &&
-  reposize_direct=$(ipfs repo stat | grep RepoSize | awk '\''{ print $2 }'\'') &&
-  export IPFS_PATH=".ipfs" &&
   reposize_symlink=$(ipfs repo stat | grep RepoSize | awk '\''{ print $2 }'\'') &&
-  echo "reposize_symlink: $reposize_symlink;  reposize_direct: $reposize_direct" &&
-  test $reposize_symlink -ge $reposize_direct
+  symlink_size=$(file_size .ipfs) &&
+  test "${reposize_symlink}" -gt "${symlink_size}"
 '
 
 test_done