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	2011-12-03 15:41:03.166686841 +0100
@@ -116,4 +116,16 @@ PURGE_TARGETS=(usr/{,share}/info/dir .pa
 PKGEXT='.pkg.tar.gz'
 SRCEXT='.src.tar.gz'
 
+#########################################################################
+# COMPRESSION DEFAULTS
+#########################################################################
+#
+# WARNING: Do NOT modify these variables unless you know what you are
+#          doing.
+#
+COMPRESSGZ=(gzip -c -f -n)
+COMPRESSBZ2=(bzip2 -c -f)
+COMPRESSXZ=(xz -c -z -)
+COMPRESSZ=(compress -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	2011-12-03 15:41:09.886522391 +0100
@@ -116,4 +116,16 @@ PURGE_TARGETS=(usr/{,share}/info/dir .pa
 PKGEXT='@PKGEXT@'
 SRCEXT='@SRCEXT@'
 
+#########################################################################
+# COMPRESSION DEFAULTS
+#########################################################################
+#
+# WARNING: Do NOT modify these variables unless you know what you are
+#          doing.
+#
+COMPRESSGZ=(gzip -c -f -n)
+COMPRESSBZ2=(bzip2 -c -f)
+COMPRESSXZ=(xz -c -z -)
+COMPRESSZ=(compress -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	2011-12-03 15:42:19.548150501 +0100
@@ -1264,10 +1264,10 @@ create_package() {
 	# 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.gz)  ${COMPRESSGZ[@]} ;;
+		*tar.bz2) ${COMPRESSBZ2[@}} ;;
+		*tar.xz)  ${COMPRESSXZ[@]} ;;
+		*tar.Z)   ${COMPRESSZ[@]} ;;
 		*tar)     cat ;;
 		*) warning "$(gettext "'%s' is not a valid archive extension.")" \
 			"$PKGEXT"; cat ;;