diff --git a/tools/mktarball.sh b/tools/mktarball.sh
index ea1a8ed..3e32006 100755
--- a/tools/mktarball.sh
+++ b/tools/mktarball.sh
@@ -39,7 +39,14 @@
 done
 
 if [ $? -eq 0 ] ; then
-    bzip2 -c ${target_tar} > ${target_tarball}
+    case "${target_tarball}" in
+    *.bz2 )
+        bzip2 -c ${target_tar} > ${target_tarball}
+        ;;
+    *.gz )
+        gzip -c ${target_tar} > ${target_tarball}
+        ;;
+    esac
     success=$?
     [ $success -eq 0 ] || rm -f ${target_tarball}
     rm -f ${target_tar}