diff --git a/src/filters/rcltar b/src/filters/rcltar
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..3008d304
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/filters/rcltar
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+# Tar-file filter for Recoll
+# Thanks to Recoll user Martin Ziegler
+# This is a modified version of /usr/share/recoll/filters/rclzip
+# It works not only for tar-files, but automatically for gzipped and
+# bzipped tar-files at well.
+
+import rclexecm
+
+try:
+    from tarfile import TarFile, open
+except:
+    print "RECFILTERROR HELPERNOTFOUND python:tarfile"
+    sys.exit(1);
+
+class TarExtractor:
+    def __init__(self, em):
+        self.currentindex = 0
+        self.em = em
+        self.namen = []
+
+    def extractone(self, ipath):
+        docdata = ""
+        try:
+            docdata = self.tar.extractfile(ipath).read()
+            ok = True
+        except Exception, err:
+            ok = False
+        iseof = rclexecm.RclExecM.noteof
+        if self.currentindex >= len(self.namen) -1:
+            iseof = rclexecm.RclExecM.eofnext
+        if isinstance(ipath, unicode):
+            ipath = ipath.encode("utf-8")
+        return (ok, docdata, ipath, iseof)
+
+    def openfile(self, params):
+        self.currentindex = 0
+        try:
+            self.tar = open(name=params["filename:"],mode='r')
+            self.namen = [ y.name for y in filter(lambda z:z.isfile(),self.tar.getmembers())]
+            return True
+        except:
+            return False
+
+    def getipath(self, params):
+        ipath = params["ipath:"]
+        ok, data, ipath, eof = self.extractone(ipath)
+        if ok:
+            return (ok, data, ipath, eof)
+        try:
+            ipath = ipath.decode("utf-8")
+            return self.extractone(ipath)
+        except Exception, err:
+            return (ok, data, ipath, eof)
+
+    def getnext(self, params):
+        if self.currentindex >= len(self.namen):
+            self.namen=[]
+            return (False, "", "", rclexecm.RclExecM.eofnow)
+        else:
+            ret= self.extractone(self.namen[self.currentindex])
+            self.currentindex += 1
+            return ret
+
+
+proto = rclexecm.RclExecM()
+extract = TarExtractor(proto)
+rclexecm.main(proto, extract)
diff --git a/src/sampleconf/mimeconf b/src/sampleconf/mimeconf
index d81b2a9c..ebcd41cb 100644
--- a/src/sampleconf/mimeconf
+++ b/src/sampleconf/mimeconf
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ application/x-perl = internal text/plain
 application/x-rar = execm rclrar;charset=default
 application/x-scribus = exec rclscribus
 application/x-shellscript = internal text/plain
+#application/x-tar = execm rcltar
 application/x-tex = exec rcltex
 application/x-webarchive = execm rclwar
 application/zip = execm rclzip;charset=default
@@ -299,6 +300,7 @@ other = application/vnd.sun.xml.draw \
         application/x-fsdirectory \
         application/x-mimehtml \
         application/x-rar \
+	application/x-tar \
         application/x-webarchive \
 	application/zip \
 
diff --git a/src/sampleconf/mimemap b/src/sampleconf/mimemap
index c27aec14..05e7f38f 100644
--- a/src/sampleconf/mimemap
+++ b/src/sampleconf/mimemap
@@ -53,6 +53,16 @@
 #.Z  = application/x-compress
 .zip = application/zip
 
+# The rcltar module can handle compressed tar formats internally so we
+# use application/x-tar for all tar files compressed or not. Note that tar
+# file indexing is disabled by default, you'll need to copy and uncomment
+# the application/x-tar commented line from mimeconf into your personal config
+.tar = application/x-tar
+.tar.gz = application/x-tar
+.tgz = application/x-tar
+.tbz = application/x-tar
+.tar.bz2 = application/x-tar
+
 .doc = application/msword
 .ppt = application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
 .xls = application/vnd.ms-excel
@@ -135,9 +145,9 @@
 # indexallfilenames is set (so this is different from skippedNames). It's a
 # bit unconsistent to have it listed among the suffix translations, but no
 # problem in practice.
-recoll_noindex = .tar.gz .tgz .tar.bz2 .tbz .log.gz .md5 .map \
+recoll_noindex = .md5 .map \
        .o .lib .dll .a .sys .exe .com \
-       .dat .bak .rdf .log .db .msf .pid \
+       .dat .bak .rdf .log.gz .log .db .msf .pid \
        ,v ~ #
 
 # Special handling of .txt files inside ~/.gaim and ~/.purple directories
diff --git a/tests/config/mimeconf b/tests/config/mimeconf
index 2a092a6d..974d09ce 100644
--- a/tests/config/mimeconf
+++ b/tests/config/mimeconf
@@ -7,3 +7,5 @@
 # with the same name in the central directory. The syntax for setting
 # values is identical.
 
+[index]
+application/x-tar = execm rcltar
diff --git a/tests/tar/tar.sh b/tests/tar/tar.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..19109c83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/tar/tar.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+topdir=`dirname $0`/..
+. $topdir/shared.sh
+
+initvariables $0
+
+(
+  recollq TARUNIQUETERM2
+
+)  2> $mystderr | egrep -v '^Recoll query: ' > $mystdout
+
+
+diff -w ${myname}.txt $mystdout > $mydiffs 2>&1
+
+checkresult
diff --git a/tests/tar/tar.txt b/tests/tar/tar.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b2bf94fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/tar/tar.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+5 results
+text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/tar/tarfile.tar]	[tarfile.tar]	15	bytes	
+text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/tar/tarfile.tar.gz]	[tarfile.tar.gz]	15	bytes	
+text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/tar/tarfile.tgz]	[tarfile.tgz]	15	bytes	
+text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/tar/tarfile.tbz]	[tarfile.tbz]	15	bytes	
+text/plain	[file:///home/dockes/projets/fulltext/testrecoll/tar/tarfile.tar.bz2]	[tarfile.tar.bz2]	15	bytes