diff --git a/doc/tar.1 b/doc/tar.1
index 18136cf..ae4f6a6 100644
--- a/doc/tar.1
+++ b/doc/tar.1
@@ -604,7 +604,9 @@ Enable SELinux context support.
 Disable SELinux context support.
 .TP
 .B \-\-xattrs
-Enable extended attributes support.
+Enable extended attributes support. When creating an archive
+\fB\-\-xattrs\-include\fR defaults to \fB'*'\fR and when extracting an
+archive \fB\-\-xattrs\-include\fR defaults to \fB'^user.*'\fR.
 .TP
 .B \-\-no\-xattrs
 Disable extended attributes support.