diff --git a/archival/ar.c b/archival/ar.c
index b058b9ec1..44c5db035 100644
--- a/archival/ar.c
+++ b/archival/ar.c
@@ -50,11 +50,12 @@ static void header_verbose_list_ar(const file_header_t *file_header)
 	printf("%s %d/%d%7d %s %s\n", &mode[1], file_header->uid, file_header->gid, (int) file_header->size, &mtime[4], file_header->name);
 }
 
-#define AR_CTX_PRINT	1
-#define AR_CTX_LIST		2
-#define AR_CTX_EXTRACT	4
-#define AR_OPT_PRESERVE_DATE	8
-#define AR_OPT_VERBOSE			16
+#define AR_CTX_PRINT			0x01
+#define AR_CTX_LIST				0x02
+#define AR_CTX_EXTRACT			0x04
+#define AR_OPT_PRESERVE_DATE	0x08
+#define AR_OPT_VERBOSE			0x10
+#define AR_OPT_CREATE			0x20
 
 extern int ar_main(int argc, char **argv)
 {
@@ -65,7 +66,7 @@ extern int ar_main(int argc, char **argv)
 	archive_handle = init_handle();
 
 	bb_opt_complementaly = "p~tx:t~px:x~pt";
-	opt = bb_getopt_ulflags(argc, argv, "ptxov");
+	opt = bb_getopt_ulflags(argc, argv, "ptxovc");
 
 	if ((opt & 0x80000000UL) || (optind == argc)) {
 		bb_show_usage();
@@ -86,6 +87,9 @@ extern int ar_main(int argc, char **argv)
 	if (opt & AR_OPT_VERBOSE) {
 		archive_handle->action_header = header_verbose_list_ar;
 	}
+	if (opt & AR_OPT_CREATE) {
+		bb_error_msg_and_die("Archive creation not supported.  Install binutils 'ar'.");
+	}
 
 	archive_handle->src_fd = bb_xopen(argv[optind++], O_RDONLY);