diff --git a/headers.js b/headers.js
index 8571c87..fe7fd36 100644
--- a/headers.js
+++ b/headers.js
@@ -3,8 +3,13 @@ var alloc = Buffer.alloc
 var ZEROS = '0000000000000000000'
 var SEVENS = '7777777777777777777'
 var ZERO_OFFSET = '0'.charCodeAt(0)
-var USTAR = 'ustar\x0000'
+var USTAR_MAGIC = Buffer.from('ustar\x00', 'binary')
+var USTAR_VER = Buffer.from('00', 'binary')
+var GNU_MAGIC = Buffer.from('ustar\x20', 'binary')
+var GNU_VER = Buffer.from('\x20\x00', 'binary')
 var MASK = parseInt('7777', 8)
+var MAGIC_OFFSET = 257
+var VERSION_OFFSET = 263
 
 var clamp = function (index, len, defaultValue) {
   if (typeof index !== 'number') return defaultValue
@@ -223,7 +228,8 @@ exports.encode = function (opts) {
 
   if (opts.linkname) buf.write(opts.linkname, 157)
 
-  buf.write(USTAR, 257)
+  USTAR_MAGIC.copy(buf, MAGIC_OFFSET)
+  USTAR_VER.copy(buf, VERSION_OFFSET)
   if (opts.uname) buf.write(opts.uname, 265)
   if (opts.gname) buf.write(opts.gname, 297)
   buf.write(encodeOct(opts.devmajor || 0, 6), 329)
@@ -252,11 +258,6 @@ exports.decode = function (buf, filenameEncoding) {
   var devmajor = decodeOct(buf, 329, 8)
   var devminor = decodeOct(buf, 337, 8)
 
-  if (buf[345]) name = decodeStr(buf, 345, 155, filenameEncoding) + '/' + name
-
-  // to support old tar versions that use trailing / to indicate dirs
-  if (typeflag === 0 && name && name[name.length - 1] === '/') typeflag = 5
-
   var c = cksum(buf)
 
   // checksum is still initial value if header was null.
@@ -265,6 +266,21 @@ exports.decode = function (buf, filenameEncoding) {
   // valid checksum
   if (c !== decodeOct(buf, 148, 8)) throw new Error('Invalid tar header. Maybe the tar is corrupted or it needs to be gunzipped?')
 
+  if (USTAR_MAGIC.compare(buf, MAGIC_OFFSET, MAGIC_OFFSET + 6) === 0) {
+    // ustar (posix) format.
+    // prepend prefix, if present.
+    if (buf[345]) name = decodeStr(buf, 345, 155, filenameEncoding) + '/' + name
+  } else if (GNU_MAGIC.compare(buf, MAGIC_OFFSET, MAGIC_OFFSET + 6) === 0 &&
+             GNU_VER.compare(buf, VERSION_OFFSET, VERSION_OFFSET + 2) === 0) {
+    // 'gnu'/'oldgnu' format. Similar to ustar, but has support for incremental and
+    // multi-volume tarballs.
+  } else {
+    throw new Error('Invalid tar header: unknown format.')
+  }
+
+  // to support old tar versions that use trailing / to indicate dirs
+  if (typeflag === 0 && name && name[name.length - 1] === '/') typeflag = 5
+
   return {
     name: name,
     mode: mode,
diff --git a/test/extract.js b/test/extract.js
index 68aeb8b..e2f92bd 100644
--- a/test/extract.js
+++ b/test/extract.js
@@ -590,3 +590,92 @@ test('incomplete', function (t) {
 
   extract.end(fs.readFileSync(fixtures.INCOMPLETE_TAR))
 })
+
+test('gnu', function (t) { // can correctly unpack gnu-tar format
+  t.plan(3)
+
+  var extract = tar.extract()
+  var noEntries = false
+
+  extract.on('entry', function (header, stream, callback) {
+    t.deepEqual(header, {
+      name: 'test.txt',
+      mode: parseInt('644', 8),
+      uid: 12345,
+      gid: 67890,
+      size: 14,
+      mtime: new Date(1559239869000),
+      type: 'file',
+      linkname: null,
+      uname: 'myuser',
+      gname: 'mygroup',
+      devmajor: 0,
+      devminor: 0
+    })
+
+    stream.pipe(concat(function (data) {
+      noEntries = true
+      t.same(data.toString(), 'Hello, world!\n')
+      callback()
+    }))
+  })
+
+  extract.on('finish', function () {
+    t.ok(noEntries)
+  })
+
+  extract.end(fs.readFileSync(fixtures.GNU_TAR))
+})
+
+test('gnu-incremental', function (t) {
+  // can correctly unpack gnu-tar incremental format. In this situation,
+  // the tarball will have additional ctime and atime values in the header,
+  // and without awareness of the 'gnu' tar format, the atime (offset 345) is mistaken
+  // for a directory prefix (also offset 345).
+  t.plan(3)
+
+  var extract = tar.extract()
+  var noEntries = false
+
+  extract.on('entry', function (header, stream, callback) {
+    t.deepEqual(header, {
+      name: 'test.txt',
+      mode: parseInt('644', 8),
+      uid: 12345,
+      gid: 67890,
+      size: 14,
+      mtime: new Date(1559239869000),
+      type: 'file',
+      linkname: null,
+      uname: 'myuser',
+      gname: 'mygroup',
+      devmajor: 0,
+      devminor: 0
+    })
+
+    stream.pipe(concat(function (data) {
+      noEntries = true
+      t.same(data.toString(), 'Hello, world!\n')
+      callback()
+    }))
+  })
+
+  extract.on('finish', function () {
+    t.ok(noEntries)
+  })
+
+  extract.end(fs.readFileSync(fixtures.GNU_INCREMENTAL_TAR))
+})
+
+test('v7 unsupported', function (t) { // correctly fails to parse v7 tarballs
+  t.plan(1)
+
+  var extract = tar.extract()
+
+  extract.on('error', function (err) {
+    t.ok(!!err)
+    extract.destroy()
+  })
+
+  extract.end(fs.readFileSync(fixtures.V7_TAR))
+})
diff --git a/test/fixtures/gnu-incremental.tar b/test/fixtures/gnu-incremental.tar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e62cfe
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/fixtures/gnu-incremental.tar differ
diff --git a/test/fixtures/gnu.tar b/test/fixtures/gnu.tar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efd641b
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/fixtures/gnu.tar differ
diff --git a/test/fixtures/index.js b/test/fixtures/index.js
index 7d5aa14..879de1f 100644
--- a/test/fixtures/index.js
+++ b/test/fixtures/index.js
@@ -17,3 +17,9 @@ exports.BASE_256_SIZE = path.join(__dirname, 'base-256-size.tar')
 exports.HUGE = path.join(__dirname, 'huge.tar.gz')
 exports.LATIN1_TAR = path.join(__dirname, 'latin1.tar')
 exports.INCOMPLETE_TAR = path.join(__dirname, 'incomplete.tar')
+// Created using gnu tar: tar cf gnu-incremental.tar --format gnu --owner=myuser:12345 --group=mygroup:67890 test.txt
+exports.GNU_TAR = path.join(__dirname, 'gnu.tar')
+// Created using gnu tar: tar cf gnu-incremental.tar -G --format gnu --owner=myuser:12345 --group=mygroup:67890 test.txt
+exports.GNU_INCREMENTAL_TAR = path.join(__dirname, 'gnu-incremental.tar')
+// Created using gnu tar: tar cf v7.tar --format v7 test.txt
+exports.V7_TAR = path.join(__dirname, 'v7.tar')
diff --git a/test/fixtures/v7.tar b/test/fixtures/v7.tar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c76b8ea
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/fixtures/v7.tar differ