diff -Nurp pacman-4.0.1~/etc/makepkg.conf pacman-4.0.1/etc/makepkg.conf
--- pacman-4.0.1~/etc/makepkg.conf	2011-11-21 04:30:34.000000000 +0100
+++ pacman-4.0.1/etc/makepkg.conf	2011-12-04 00:05:37.076835259 +0100
@@ -116,4 +116,21 @@ PURGE_TARGETS=(usr/{,share}/info/dir .pa
 PKGEXT='.pkg.tar.gz'
 SRCEXT='.src.tar.gz'
 
+#########################################################################
+# COMPRESSION DEFAULTS
+#########################################################################
+#
+# 
+# Format: 'file extension::program and parameters'
+#
+COMPRESSORS=('.pkg.tar.gz::gzip -c -f -n'
+             '.pkg.tar.bz2::bzip2 -c -f'
+             '.pkg.tar.xz::xz -c -z -'
+             '.pkg.tar.Z::compress -c -f'
+             '.pkg.tar::cat')
+
+# Other common tools:
+# pigz -c -f -n
+# pbzip2 -c -f
+
 # vim: set ft=sh ts=2 sw=2 et:
diff -Nurp pacman-4.0.1~/etc/makepkg.conf.in pacman-4.0.1/etc/makepkg.conf.in
--- pacman-4.0.1~/etc/makepkg.conf.in	2011-11-15 16:37:42.000000000 +0100
+++ pacman-4.0.1/etc/makepkg.conf.in	2011-12-04 00:05:56.873023962 +0100
@@ -116,4 +116,21 @@ PURGE_TARGETS=(usr/{,share}/info/dir .pa
 PKGEXT='@PKGEXT@'
 SRCEXT='@SRCEXT@'
 
+#########################################################################
+# COMPRESSION DEFAULTS
+#########################################################################
+#
+# 
+# Format: 'file extension::program and parameters'
+#
+COMPRESSORS=('.pkg.tar.gz::gzip -c -f -n'
+             '.pkg.tar.bz2::bzip2 -c -f'
+             '.pkg.tar.xz::xz -c -z -'
+             '.pkg.tar.Z::compress -c -f'
+             '.pkg.tar::cat')
+
+# Other common tools:
+# pigz -c -f -n
+# pbzip2 -c -f
+
 # vim: set ft=sh ts=2 sw=2 et:
diff -Nurp pacman-4.0.1~/scripts/makepkg.sh.in pacman-4.0.1/scripts/makepkg.sh.in
--- pacman-4.0.1~/scripts/makepkg.sh.in	2011-11-21 04:17:43.000000000 +0100
+++ pacman-4.0.1/scripts/makepkg.sh.in	2011-12-04 00:15:51.968655178 +0100
@@ -1262,16 +1262,24 @@ create_package() {
 	# bsdtar's gzip compression always saves the time stamp, making one
 	# archive created using the same command line distinct from another.
 	# Disable bsdtar compression and use gzip -n for now.
-	bsdtar -cf - $comp_files * |
-	case "$PKGEXT" in
-		*tar.gz)  gzip -c -f -n ;;
-		*tar.bz2) bzip2 -c -f ;;
-		*tar.xz)  xz -c -z - ;;
-		*tar.Z)   compress -c -f ;;
-		*tar)     cat ;;
-		*) warning "$(gettext "'%s' is not a valid archive extension.")" \
-			"$PKGEXT"; cat ;;
-	esac > "${pkg_file}" || ret=$?
+
+	# loop through COMPRESSORS variable looking for file extentsion
+	local i
+	for i in "${COMPRESSORS[@]}"; do
+		local extension="${i%%::*}"
+		if [[ ${PKGEXT} = ${extension} ]]; then
+			local compress="${i##*::}"
+			break
+		fi
+	done
+	
+	# if we didn't find an program default to cat and to not compress
+	if [[ -z ${compress} ]]; then
+		warning "$(gettext "File extension is onknown, package will not be compressed.")"
+		compress="cat"
+	fi
+
+	bsdtar -cf - ${comp_files} * | ${compress} > "${pkg_file}" || ret=$?
 
 	shopt -u nullglob
 	shopt -u -o pipefail