diff --git a/man/Makefile.local b/man/Makefile.local
index 216aaa02..57910b76 100644
--- a/man/Makefile.local
+++ b/man/Makefile.local
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ MAIN_PAGE := $(dir)/man1/notmuch.1
 
 MAN1 := \
 	$(MAIN_PAGE) \
+	$(dir)/man1/notmuch-compact.1 \
 	$(dir)/man1/notmuch-config.1 \
 	$(dir)/man1/notmuch-count.1 \
 	$(dir)/man1/notmuch-dump.1 \
diff --git a/man/man1/notmuch-compact.1 b/man/man1/notmuch-compact.1
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1aeed221
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/man1/notmuch-compact.1
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+.TH NOTMUCH-COMPACT 1 2013-08-23 "Notmuch 0.16"
+.SH NAME
+notmuch-compact \- compact the notmuch database
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+
+.B notmuch compact
+
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+
+The
+.B compact
+command can be used to compact the notmuch database. This can both reduce
+the space required by the database and improve lookup performance.
+
+The compacted database is built in a temporary directory and is later
+moved into the place of the origin database. The original uncompacted
+database is preserved to be deleted by the user as desired.
+
+Note that the database write lock will be held during the compaction
+process (which may be quite long) to protect data integrity.
+
+.RE
+.SH ENVIRONMENT
+The following environment variables can be used to control the
+behavior of notmuch.
+.TP
+.B NOTMUCH_CONFIG
+Specifies the location of the notmuch configuration file. Notmuch will
+use ${HOME}/.notmuch\-config if this variable is not set.
+.SH SEE ALSO
+
+\fBnotmuch\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-count\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-dump\fR(1),
+\fBnotmuch-hooks\fR(5), \fBnotmuch-insert\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-new\fR(1),
+\fBnotmuch-reply\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-restore\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-search\fR(1),
+\fBnotmuch-search-terms\fR(7), \fBnotmuch-show\fR(1),
+\fBnotmuch-tag\fR(1)