diff --git a/etc/archives/archive-recent.sh b/etc/archives/archive-recent.sh
index ee49f3f..7e297c2 100755
--- a/etc/archives/archive-recent.sh
+++ b/etc/archives/archive-recent.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ recent_file_archive_size=$((files_daily * 28))
 archives_dir="cache-lt/archive/servers"
 base_file_name="$archives_dir/recent/servers.json"
 num_recent_files=$(/bin/ls -1 $base_file_name* 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
-if [ "$num_recent_files" -ge "$recent_file_limit" ]; then
+if [ "$num_recent_files" -ge "$recent_file_limit" ] || [ "$1" = "-f" ]; then
 	>&2 echo "$self: recent file limit reached, compressing"
 	/bin/ls -1tr $base_file_name* |
 	head -n "$recent_file_archive_size" |