diff --git a/plugins/ua/README.md b/plugins/ua/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2e8d98054
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/ua/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+# universalarchive plugin
+
+Lets you compress files by a catchy command `ua <format> <files>` into various compression formats;
+namely, `<format>` could be `zip`, `xz`, ..
+
+For example, the command
+```sh
+ua xz *.html
+```
+will compress all `html` files in directory `folder` into `folder.xz`.
+
+In more detail:
+This plug-in defines a function called `universalarchive` that compresses the files you pass it; it supports a wide variety of compression format.
+
+This way you don't have to know what specific command compresses a file, you
+just do `universalarchive <archive type> <filename>` and the function takes
+care of the rest.
+
+To use it, add `universalarchive` to the plugins array in your zshrc file:
+
+```zsh
+plugins=(... universalarchive)
+```
+
+## Supported file extensions
+
+| Extension         | Description                          |
+|:------------------|:-------------------------------------|
+| `7z`              | 7zip file                            |
+| `Z`               | Z archive (LZW)                      |
+| `bz2`             | Bzip2 file                           |
+| `gz`              | Gzip file                            |
+| `lzma`            | LZMA archive                         |
+| `lzo`             | LZO archive                          |
+| `rar`             | WinRAR archive                       |
+| `tar`             | Tarball                              |
+| `tar.bz2`         | Tarball with bzip2 compression       |
+| `tar.gz`          | Tarball with gzip compression        |
+| `tar.xz`          | Tarball with lzma2 compression       |
+| `tar.zma`         | Tarball with lzma compression        |
+| `tbz`             | Tarball with bzip compression        |
+| `tbz2`            | Tarball with bzip2 compression       |
+| `tgz`             | Tarball with gzip compression        |
+| `tlz`             | Tarball with lzma compression        |
+| `txz`             | Tarball with lzma2 compression       |
+| `xz`              | LZMA2 archive                        |
+| `zip`             | Zip archive                          |
+
+See [list of archive formats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_archive_formats) for more information regarding archive formats.
diff --git a/plugins/ua/_universalarchive b/plugins/ua/_universalarchive
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/ua/_universalarchive
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+#compdef universalarchive
+#autoload
+
+_arguments \
+  '(-r --remove)'{-r,--remove}'[Remove archive.]' \
+  "*::archive file:_files -g '(#i)*.(7z|Z|bz2|gz|lzma|rar|tar|tar.bz2|tar.gz|tar.xz|tar.zma|tbz|tbz2|tgz|tlz|txz|xz|zip)(-.)'" \
+&& return 0
diff --git a/plugins/ua/universalarchive.plugin.zsh b/plugins/ua/universalarchive.plugin.zsh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3e5f3ff13
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+++ b/plugins/ua/universalarchive.plugin.zsh
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+alias ua='universalarchive'
+alias ax='universalarchive tar.xz '
+
+# exclusively POSIX shell syntax is used
+
+universalarchive() { # compress a file or folder
+  local file
+  local parent
+  local name
+
+  local type="$1"
+  local input="$2"
+
+  if [ -f "$input" ]; then
+    if [ "$#" -eq 2 ]; then
+      name="${input%.[^.]*}"
+    else
+      file="$(realpath "$input")" 
+      parent="${file%/*}" 
+      name="${parent##*/}"
+    fi
+  elif [ -d "$input" ]; then
+    name="${input%/*}"
+  else
+    echo "universalarchive(): archive a file or directory."
+    echo "Usage:   ua <archive type> <files>"
+    echo "Error: Please give a valid file or directory name!"
+  fi
+
+  if [ -f "${name}.${type}" ]; then
+    name=$(mktemp --dry-run "./${name}_XXX.${type}")
+  fi
+
+  case "$type" in
+    tar)          shift; tar      cvf            "${name}.tar"       "${@%%}" ;;
+    tbz|tar.bz)   shift; tar      cvjf           "${name}.tar.bz2"   "${@%}"  ;;
+    tbz2|tar.bz2) shift; tar      cvjf           "${name}.tar.bz2"   "${@%%}" ;;
+    txz|tar.xz)   shift; env XZ_OPT=-T0 tar cvJf "${name}.tar.xz"    "${@%%}" ;;
+    tgz|tar.gz)   shift; tar      cvzf           "${name}.tar.gz"    "${@%%}" ;;
+    tZ|tar.Z)     shift; tar      cvZf           "${name}.tar.Z"     "${@%%}" ;;
+    gz|gzip)      shift; gzip     -vcf           "${@%%}"          > "${name}.gz" ;;
+    bz|bzip)      shift; bzip2    -vcf           "${@%%}"          > "${name}.bz" ;;
+    bz2|bzip2)    shift; bzip2    -vcf           "${@%%}"          > "${name}.bz2" ;;
+    Z|compress)   shift; compress -vcf           "${@%%}"          > "${name}.Z" ;;
+    zip)          shift; zip      -rull          "${name}.zip"       "${@%%}" ;;
+    7z|7zip)      shift; 7z       u              "${name}.7z"        "${@%%}" ;;
+    rar)          shift; rar      a              "${name}.rar"       "${@%%}" ;;
+    lzo)          shift; lzop     -vc            "${@%%}"          > "${name}.lzo" ;;
+    xz)           shift; xz       -vc -T0        "${@%%}"          > "${name}.xz" ;;
+    lzma)         shift; lzma     -vc            "${@%%}"          > "${name}.lzma" ;;
+    *)  echo "universalarchive(): archive a file or directory."
+        echo "Usage:   ua <archive type> <files>"
+        echo "Example: ua tbz2 PKGBUILD"
+        echo "Please specify archive type and files."
+        echo "Valid archive types are:"
+        echo "tar, tbz2, txz, tgz, tZ, gz, bz2, Z,"
+        echo "zip, 7z, rar, lzo, xz, and lzma."                   ;;
+  esac
+}