diff -uNr tar-1.19/src/buffer.c tar-1.19-patched/src/buffer.c
--- tar-1.19/src/buffer.c	2007-08-26 10:56:55.000000000 +0200
+++ tar-1.19-patched/src/buffer.c	2008-02-05 14:48:52.445315353 +0100
@@ -204,7 +204,8 @@
   ct_none,
   ct_compress,
   ct_gzip,
-  ct_bzip2
+  ct_bzip2,
+  ct_lzma
 };
 
 struct zip_magic
@@ -221,6 +222,7 @@
   { ct_compress, 2, "\037\235", "compress", "-Z" },
   { ct_gzip,     2, "\037\213", "gzip", "-z"  },
   { ct_bzip2,    3, "BZh",      "bzip2", "-j" },
+  { ct_lzma,     6, "\xFFLZMA", "lzma", "-a" },
 };
 
 #define NMAGIC (sizeof(magic)/sizeof(magic[0]))
diff -uNr tar-1.19/src/tar.c tar-1.19-patched/src/tar.c
--- tar-1.19/src/tar.c	2007-09-26 23:36:58.000000000 +0200
+++ tar-1.19-patched/src/tar.c	2008-02-05 14:48:52.446312743 +0100
@@ -574,6 +574,8 @@
    N_("control pax keywords"), GRID+8 },
   {"label", 'V', N_("TEXT"), 0,
    N_("create archive with volume name TEXT; at list/extract time, use TEXT as a globbing pattern for volume name"), GRID+8 },
+  {"lzma", 'a', 0, 0,
+   N_("filter the archive through lzma"), GRID+8 },
   {"bzip2", 'j', 0, 0,
    N_("filter the archive through bzip2"), GRID+8 },
   {"gzip", 'z', 0, 0,
@@ -1218,6 +1220,10 @@
       args->input_files = true;
       break;
 
+    case 'a':
+      set_use_compress_program_option ("lzma");
+      break;
+
     case 'A':
       set_subcommand_option (CAT_SUBCOMMAND);
       break;
--- ./tar.1.org	2008-02-05 14:54:14.572314240 +0100
+++ ./tar.1	2008-02-05 14:57:14.033710690 +0100
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 .BR -p ", " --preserve-permissions
 .BR -v ", " --verbose
 .BR -z ", " --gzip
+.BR -a ", " --lzma
 .fi
 
 .I All Options:
@@ -352,6 +353,9 @@
 .TP
 .BR -z ", " --gzip ", " --ungzip
 filter the archive through gzip
+.TP
+.BR -a ", " --lzma ", " --unlzma
+filter the archive through lzma
 .SH "ALL OPTIONS"
 .TP
 .BR --atime-preserve