diff --git a/misc/bash_completion.d/tarsnap b/misc/bash_completion.d/tarsnap
index 2d81db07..50ce3a5d 100644
--- a/misc/bash_completion.d/tarsnap
+++ b/misc/bash_completion.d/tarsnap
@@ -52,13 +52,13 @@ _tarsnap ()
 	longopts="--aggressive-networking --archive-names --cachedir \
 		  --check-links --checkpoint-bytes --chroot --configfile \
 		  --creationtime --csv-file --disk-pause --dry-run \
-		  --dump-config --exclude --fast-read --force-resources \
-		  --fsck --fsck-prune --hashes --humanize-numbers \
-		  --include --initialize-cachedir --insane-filesystems \
-		  --iso-dates --keep-going --keep-newer-files --keyfile \
-		  --list-archives --lowmem --maxbw --maxbw-rate \
-		  --maxbw-rate-down --maxbw-rate-up --newer \
-		  --newer-mtime --newer-than --newer-mtime-than \
+		  --dry-run-metadata --dump-config --exclude --fast-read \
+		  --force-resources --fsck --fsck-prune --hashes \
+		  --humanize-numbers --include --initialize-cachedir \
+		  --insane-filesystems --iso-dates --keep-going \
+		  --keep-newer-files --keyfile --list-archives --lowmem \
+		  --maxbw --maxbw-rate --maxbw-rate-down --maxbw-rate-up \
+		  --newer --newer-mtime --newer-than --newer-mtime-than \
 		  --no-aggressive-networking --no-config-exclude \
 		  --no-config-include --no-default-config \
 		  --no-disk-pause --no-force-resources \
diff --git a/misc/zsh_completion/_tarsnap b/misc/zsh_completion/_tarsnap
index 718a5dc9..720e0cfe 100644
--- a/misc/zsh_completion/_tarsnap
+++ b/misc/zsh_completion/_tarsnap
@@ -527,6 +527,7 @@ _shtab_tarsnap_c_options=(
   "--creationtime[manually specify a creation time for the archive]:X:"
   "--disk-pause[often pause for ARG ms while creating an archive]:X:"
   "--dry-run[do not really create an archive\; just simulate doing so]"
+  "--dry-run-metadata[do not really create an archive\; just simulate the metadata]"
   "--exclude[do not process certain files or directories]:pattern:"
   "-f[specify name of archive to operate on]:archive-name:(${archive_list}):"
   "-H[store the targets of a symbolic links]"
diff --git a/tar/tarsnap.1-man.in b/tar/tarsnap.1-man.in
index cb8c9ec3..6e9e9ff0 100644
--- a/tar/tarsnap.1-man.in
+++ b/tar/tarsnap.1-man.in
@@ -354,6 +354,26 @@ Furthermore,
 \fB\--dry-run\fP
 will not check whether the cache directory is out of sync.
 .TP
+\fB\--dry-run-metadata\fP
+(c mode only)
+Don't really create an archive; just simulate doing so.
+This is similar to
+\fB\--dry-run\fP,
+except that it doesn't read any files; it only processes filesystem metadata.
+.PP
+This is significantly faster than a regular
+\fB\--dry-run\fP,
+but it is still suitable for checking which filesystem entries will be
+archived (with
+\fB\-v\fP),
+or getting the total uncompressed archive size (via
+\fB\--totals\fP
+or
+\fB\--progress-bytes\fP).
+.PP
+This option cannot be used with
+\fB\--print-stats\fP.
+.TP
 \fB\--dump-config\fP
 Print out the command-line and all non-blank lines read from config files.
 .TP