diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index d60be1b050..723bc8dac1 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1452,6 +1452,30 @@ conf.set10('HAVE_ZSTD', have_zstd)
 
 conf.set10('HAVE_COMPRESSION', have_xz or have_lz4 or have_zstd)
 
+compression = get_option('default-compression')
+if compression == 'auto'
+        if have_zstd
+                compression = 'zstd'
+        elif have_lz4
+                compression = 'lz4'
+        elif have_xz
+                compression = 'xz'
+        else
+                compression = 'none'
+        endif
+elif compression == 'zstd' and not have_zstd
+        error('default-compression=zstd requires zstd')
+elif compression == 'lz4' and not have_lz4
+        error('default-compression=lz4 requires lz4')
+elif compression == 'xz' and not have_xz
+        error('default-compression=xz requires xz')
+endif
+conf.set('OBJECT_COMPRESSED_NONE', 0)
+conf.set('OBJECT_COMPRESSED_XZ', 1)
+conf.set('OBJECT_COMPRESSED_LZ4', 2)
+conf.set('OBJECT_COMPRESSED_ZSTD', 4)
+conf.set('DEFAULT_COMPRESSION', 'OBJECT_COMPRESSED_@0@'.format(compression.to_upper()))
+
 want_xkbcommon = get_option('xkbcommon')
 if want_xkbcommon != 'false' and not skip_deps
         libxkbcommon = dependency('xkbcommon',
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index a315ca47c5..2a030ac28e 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -411,6 +411,8 @@ option('lz4', type : 'combo', choices : ['auto', 'true', 'false'],
        description : 'lz4 compression support')
 option('zstd', type : 'combo', choices : ['auto', 'true', 'false'],
        description : 'zstd compression support')
+option('default-compression', type : 'combo', choices : ['auto', 'zstd', 'lz4', 'xz'], value: 'auto',
+       description : 'default compression algorithm')
 option('xkbcommon', type : 'combo', choices : ['auto', 'true', 'false'],
        description : 'xkbcommon keymap support')
 option('pcre2', type : 'combo', choices : ['auto', 'true', 'false'],
diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/compress.h b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/compress.h
index 005e60e2e3..40ab43c4cb 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/compress.h
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/compress.h
@@ -18,15 +18,15 @@ int compress_blob_zstd(const void *src, uint64_t src_size,
 static inline int compress_blob(const void *src, uint64_t src_size,
                                 void *dst, size_t dst_alloc_size, size_t *dst_size) {
         int r;
-#if HAVE_ZSTD
+#if DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_ZSTD
         r = compress_blob_zstd(src, src_size, dst, dst_alloc_size, dst_size);
         if (r == 0)
                 return OBJECT_COMPRESSED_ZSTD;
-#elif HAVE_LZ4
+#elif DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_LZ4
         r = compress_blob_lz4(src, src_size, dst, dst_alloc_size, dst_size);
         if (r == 0)
                 return OBJECT_COMPRESSED_LZ4;
-#elif HAVE_XZ
+#elif DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_XZ
         r = compress_blob_xz(src, src_size, dst, dst_alloc_size, dst_size);
         if (r == 0)
                 return OBJECT_COMPRESSED_XZ;
@@ -72,13 +72,13 @@ int decompress_stream_xz(int fdf, int fdt, uint64_t max_size);
 int decompress_stream_lz4(int fdf, int fdt, uint64_t max_size);
 int decompress_stream_zstd(int fdf, int fdt, uint64_t max_size);
 
-#if HAVE_ZSTD
+#if DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_ZSTD
 #  define compress_stream compress_stream_zstd
 #  define COMPRESSED_EXT ".zst"
-#elif HAVE_LZ4
+#elif DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_LZ4
 #  define compress_stream compress_stream_lz4
 #  define COMPRESSED_EXT ".lz4"
-#elif HAVE_XZ
+#elif DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_XZ
 #  define compress_stream compress_stream_xz
 #  define COMPRESSED_EXT ".xz"
 #else
diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-def.h b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-def.h
index d64c70cbe6..3259b0a515 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-def.h
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-def.h
@@ -42,11 +42,9 @@ typedef enum ObjectType {
         _OBJECT_TYPE_MAX
 } ObjectType;
 
-/* Object flags */
+/* Object flags
+ * The per-compression enums are defined in meson.build so that config.h is self-contained */
 enum {
-        OBJECT_COMPRESSED_XZ   = 1 << 0,
-        OBJECT_COMPRESSED_LZ4  = 1 << 1,
-        OBJECT_COMPRESSED_ZSTD = 1 << 2,
         OBJECT_COMPRESSION_MASK = (OBJECT_COMPRESSED_XZ | OBJECT_COMPRESSED_LZ4 | OBJECT_COMPRESSED_ZSTD),
         _OBJECT_COMPRESSED_MAX = OBJECT_COMPRESSION_MASK,
 };
diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c
index e72f041bdc..a6b2a0f326 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-journal/journal-file.c
@@ -3359,11 +3359,11 @@ int journal_file_open(
                 .open_flags = open_flags,
                 .writable = (open_flags & O_ACCMODE) != O_RDONLY,
 
-#if HAVE_ZSTD
+#if DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_ZSTD
                 .compress_zstd = FLAGS_SET(file_flags, JOURNAL_COMPRESS),
-#elif HAVE_LZ4
+#elif DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_LZ4
                 .compress_lz4 = FLAGS_SET(file_flags, JOURNAL_COMPRESS),
-#elif HAVE_XZ
+#elif DEFAULT_COMPRESSION == OBJECT_COMPRESSED_XZ
                 .compress_xz = FLAGS_SET(file_flags, JOURNAL_COMPRESS),
 #endif
                 .compress_threshold_bytes = compress_threshold_bytes == UINT64_MAX ?