diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f9e25c5b..3d4d845d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,6 +7,5 @@ build/
 /gearyd
 /geary-mailer
 /geary-console
-*.gz
-*.bz2
+*.xz
 
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index cf597867..419d8475 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -86,8 +86,6 @@ endif ()
 set(ARCHIVE_NAME ${CMAKE_PROJECT_NAME}-${VERSION})
 add_custom_target(dist
     COMMAND git archive --prefix=${ARCHIVE_NAME}/ HEAD
-        | bzip2 > ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${ARCHIVE_NAME}.tar.bz2
-    COMMAND git archive --prefix=${ARCHIVE_NAME}/ HEAD
-        | gzip > ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${ARCHIVE_NAME}.tar.gz
+        | xz -z > ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${ARCHIVE_NAME}.tar.xz
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR})
 
diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index 9ee8bc8b..33e4d9aa 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -30,6 +30,5 @@ distclean: clean
 .PHONY: dist
 dist:
 	@$(MAKE) -C $(BUILD_DIR) dist
-	@cp build/*.gz .
-	@cp build/*.bz2 .
+	@cp build/*.xz .