--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -263,17 +263,18 @@ prepsymbolsarchive: recurse_syms
 endif
 
 .PHONY: symbolsfullarchive
 symbolsfullarchive: prepsymbolsarchive
 	$(RM) '$(DIST)/$(PKG_PATH)$(SYMBOL_FULL_ARCHIVE_BASENAME).zip'
 	$(call py_action,symbols_archive,$(abspath '$(DIST)/$(PKG_PATH)$(SYMBOL_FULL_ARCHIVE_BASENAME).zip') \
                                      $(abspath $(DIST)/crashreporter-symbols) \
                                      --exclude '*test*' \
-                                     --exclude '*Test*')
+                                     --exclude '*Test*' \
+                                     --compress '**/*.sym')
 
 .PHONY: symbolsarchive
 symbolsarchive: prepsymbolsarchive
 	$(RM) '$(DIST)/$(PKG_PATH)$(SYMBOL_ARCHIVE_BASENAME).zip'
 	$(call py_action,symbols_archive,$(abspath '$(DIST)/$(PKG_PATH)$(SYMBOL_ARCHIVE_BASENAME).zip') \
                                      $(abspath $(DIST)/crashreporter-symbols) \
                                      --include '**/*.sym')
 

--- a/python/mozbuild/mozbuild/action/symbols_archive.py
+++ b/python/mozbuild/mozbuild/action/symbols_archive.py
@@ -5,35 +5,40 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function, unicode_literals
 
 import argparse
 import sys
 import os
 
 from mozpack.files import FileFinder
 from mozpack.mozjar import JarWriter
+import mozpack.path as mozpath
 
-def make_archive(archive_name, base, exclude, include):
+def make_archive(archive_name, base, exclude, include, compress):
     finder = FileFinder(base, ignore=exclude)
     if not include:
         include = ['*']
-
+    if not compress:
+        compress = ['**/*.sym']
     archive_basename = os.path.basename(archive_name)
     with open(archive_name, 'wb') as fh:
         with JarWriter(fileobj=fh, optimize=False, compress_level=5) as writer:
             for pat in include:
                 for p, f in finder.find(pat):
                     print('  Adding to "%s":\n\t"%s"' % (archive_basename, p))
-                    writer.add(p.encode('utf-8'), f.read(), mode=f.mode, skip_duplicates=True)
+                    should_compress = any(mozpath.match(p, pat) for pat in compress)
+                    writer.add(p.encode('utf-8'), f.read(), mode=f.mode,
+                               compress=should_compress, skip_duplicates=True)
 
 def main(argv):
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Produce a symbols archive')
     parser.add_argument('archive', help='Which archive to generate')
     parser.add_argument('base', help='Base directory to package')
     parser.add_argument('--exclude', default=[], action='append', help='File patterns to exclude')
     parser.add_argument('--include', default=[], action='append', help='File patterns to include')
+    parser.add_argument('--compress', default=[], action='append', help='File patterns to compress')
 
     args = parser.parse_args(argv)
 
-    make_archive(args.archive, args.base, args.exclude, args.include)
+    make_archive(args.archive, args.base, args.exclude, args.include, args.compress)
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     main(sys.argv[1:])