diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c4a72a694..3ef6b045c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 *.rej
 *.tar.bz2
 *.tar.gz
-*.tar.xz
+*.tar.lz
 *~
 .deps
 .libs
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 6b517f528..376cd6a9d 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ See the file COPYING for copying conditions.
 
 ** build system
 
+*** the xz archive has been replaced with an lzip archive
+
 *** a new option to configure --enable-warnings to encapsulate passing
     of warning-related flags which is useful in testing flex
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 2fc140b24..c786752f7 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ AC_INIT([the fast lexical analyser generator],[2.6.2],[flex-help@lists.sourcefor
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/scan.l])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])
 LT_INIT
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wno-portability foreign check-news std-options dist-xz parallel-tests 1.14.1])
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wno-portability foreign check-news std-options dist-lzip parallel-tests 1.14.1])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADER([src/config.h])
 AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR([lib])
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])