diff --git a/src/main/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/DistributedLzoIndexer.java b/src/main/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/DistributedLzoIndexer.java
index edbde8f4..3b5f68cc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/DistributedLzoIndexer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/DistributedLzoIndexer.java
@@ -9,8 +9,10 @@
 import com.hadoop.mapreduce.LzoIndexOutputFormat;
 import com.hadoop.mapreduce.LzoSplitInputFormat;
 import com.hadoop.mapreduce.LzoSplitRecordReader;
+
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configured;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileStatus;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
@@ -25,67 +27,153 @@
 
 public class DistributedLzoIndexer extends Configured implements Tool {
   private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(DistributedLzoIndexer.class);
-  private final String LZO_EXTENSION = new LzopCodec().getDefaultExtension();
 
+  private static final String LZO_EXTENSION = new LzopCodec().getDefaultExtension();
+
+  public static final String LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY = "lzo.indexing.skip-small-files.enabled";
+  public static final boolean LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_DEFAULT = false;
+  public static final String LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY = "lzo.indexing.skip-small-files.size";
+  public static final long LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_DEFAULT = 0;
+  public static final String LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_KEY = "lzo.indexing.recursive.enabled";
+  public static final boolean LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_DEFAULT = true;
+  private static final String TEMP_FILE_NAME = "/_temporary";
+
+  private boolean lzoSkipIndexingSmallFiles = LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_DEFAULT;
+  private boolean lzoRecursiveIndexing = LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_DEFAULT;
+  private long lzoSmallFileSize = LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_DEFAULT;
+
+  public boolean getLzoSkipIndexingSmallFiles() { return lzoSkipIndexingSmallFiles; }
+  public boolean getLzoRecursiveIndexing() { return lzoRecursiveIndexing; }
+  public long getLzoSmallFileSize() { return lzoSmallFileSize; }
+
+  private Configuration conf = getConf();
+
+  /**
+   * Accepts paths which don't end in TEMP_FILE_NAME
+   */
   private final PathFilter nonTemporaryFilter = new PathFilter() {
+    @Override
     public boolean accept(Path path) {
-      return !path.toString().endsWith("/_temporary");
+      return !path.toString().endsWith(TEMP_FILE_NAME);
     }
   };
 
-  private void walkPath(Path path, PathFilter pathFilter, List<Path> accumulator) {
+  /**
+   * Returns whether a file should be considered small enough to skip indexing.
+   */
+  public boolean isSmallFile(FileStatus status) {
+    return status.getLen() <= lzoSmallFileSize;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Adds into accumulator paths under path which this indexer should index.
+   * @param path The root path to check under.
+   * @param pathFilter The filter to apply for all paths.
+   * @param accumulator The list to accumulate paths to process in. The state
+   *                    of this list is changed in this call.
+   */
+  private void visitPath(Path path, PathFilter pathFilter, List<Path> accumulator) {
     try {
-      FileSystem fs = path.getFileSystem(getConf());
+      FileSystem fs = path.getFileSystem(conf);
       FileStatus fileStatus = fs.getFileStatus(path);
+      visitPathHelper(fileStatus, fs, pathFilter, accumulator, true);
+    } catch (IOException ioe) {
+      LOG.error("Error visiting root path: " + path, ioe);
+    }
+  }
 
-      if (fileStatus.isDir()) {
-        FileStatus[] children = fs.listStatus(path, pathFilter);
-        for (FileStatus childStatus : children) {
-          walkPath(childStatus.getPath(), pathFilter, accumulator);
-        }
-      } else if (path.toString().endsWith(LZO_EXTENSION)) {
-        Path lzoIndexPath = path.suffix(LzoIndex.LZO_INDEX_SUFFIX);
-        if (fs.exists(lzoIndexPath)) {
-          // If the index exists and is of nonzero size, we're already done.
-          // We re-index a file with a zero-length index, because every file has at least one block.
-          if (fs.getFileStatus(lzoIndexPath).getLen() > 0) {
-            LOG.info("[SKIP] LZO index file already exists for " + path);
-            return;
-          } else {
-            LOG.info("Adding LZO file " + path + " to indexing list (index file exists but is zero length)");
-            accumulator.add(path);
+  /* isInitialCall exists for this method to be consistent with Hadoop's definition
+    of "recursive": if the root path to a job is a directory and
+    and "recursive = false", it still uses the files in that directory but does not
+    recurse into children directories. The initial call is from visitPath
+    with isInitialCall = true to mimic this behavior. Afterwards the recursive
+    case sets isInitialCall = false.  */
+  private void visitPathHelper(FileStatus fileStatus, FileSystem fs, PathFilter pathFilter, List<Path> accumulator, boolean isInitialCall) {
+    try {
+      Path path = fileStatus.getPath();
+      if (fileStatus.isDirectory()) {
+        if (lzoRecursiveIndexing || isInitialCall) {
+          FileStatus[] children = fs.listStatus(path, pathFilter);
+          for (FileStatus childStatus : children) {
+            visitPathHelper(childStatus, fs, pathFilter, accumulator, false);
           }
         } else {
-          // If no index exists, we need to index the file.
-          LOG.info("Adding LZO file " + path + " to indexing list (no index currently exists)");
-          accumulator.add(path);
+          LOG.info("[SKIP] Path " + path + " is a directory and recursion is not enabled.");
         }
+      } else if (shouldIndexFile(fileStatus, fs)) {
+        accumulator.add(path);
       }
     } catch (IOException ioe) {
-      LOG.warn("Error walking path: " + path, ioe);
+      LOG.warn("Error visiting path: " + fileStatus.getPath(), ioe);
     }
   }
 
-  public int run(String[] args) throws Exception {
-    if (args.length == 0 || (args.length == 1 && "--help".equals(args[0]))) {
-      printUsage();
-      ToolRunner.printGenericCommandUsage(System.err);
-      return -1;
-    }
+  /**
+   * Determine based on previous configuration of this indexer whether a file
+   * represented by fileStatus on the given FileSystem should be indexed or not.
+   * @param fileStatus The file to consider for indexing.
+   * @param fs The FileSystem on which the file resides.
+   * @return true if this indexer is configured to consider fileStatus indexable
+   *         false if this indexer doesn't consider fileStatus indexable.
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  public boolean shouldIndexFile(FileStatus fileStatus, FileSystem fs) throws IOException {
+    Path path = fileStatus.getPath();
+    if (path.getName().endsWith(LZO_EXTENSION)) {
+      if (lzoSkipIndexingSmallFiles && isSmallFile(fileStatus)) {
+        LOG.info("[SKIP] Skip indexing small files enabled and " + path + " is too small");
+        return false;
+      }
 
-    List<Path> inputPaths = new ArrayList<Path>();
-    for (String strPath: args) {
-      walkPath(new Path(strPath), nonTemporaryFilter, inputPaths);
-    }
+      Path lzoIndexPath = path.suffix(LzoIndex.LZO_INDEX_SUFFIX);
+      if (fs.exists(lzoIndexPath)) {
+        // If the index exists and is of nonzero size, we're already done.
+        // We re-index a file with a zero-length index, because every file has at least one block.
+        FileStatus indexFileStatus = fs.getFileStatus(lzoIndexPath);
+        if (indexFileStatus.getLen() > 0) {
+          LOG.info("[SKIP] LZO index file already exists for " + path);
+          return false;
+        } else {
+          LOG.info("[ADD] LZO file " + path + " to indexing list (index file exists but is zero length)");
+          return true;
+        }
+      }
 
-    if (inputPaths.isEmpty()) {
-      LOG.info("No input paths found - perhaps all " +
-          ".lzo files have already been indexed.");
-      return 0;
+      // If no index exists, we need to index the file.
+      LOG.info("[ADD] LZO file " + path + " to indexing list (no index currently exists)");
+      return true;
     }
 
-    Job job = new Job(getConf());
-    job.setJobName("Distributed Lzo Indexer " + Arrays.toString(args));
+    // If not an LZO file, skip the file.
+    LOG.info("[SKIP] Not an LZO file: " + path);
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Configures this indexer from the values set in conf.
+   * @param conf The Configuration to read values from.
+   */
+  public void configure(Configuration conf) {
+    lzoSkipIndexingSmallFiles =
+        conf.getBoolean(LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY, LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_DEFAULT);
+
+    lzoSmallFileSize =
+        conf.getLong(LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY, LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_DEFAULT);
+
+    lzoRecursiveIndexing =
+        conf.getBoolean(LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_KEY, LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_DEFAULT);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Creates a Job from the given Configuration and commandline arguments.
+   * @param conf The base Configuration to use for the job.
+   * @param name The name to give the Job. Appened to "Distributed Lzo Indexer".
+   * @return The configured Job object.
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  private Job createJob(Configuration conf, String name) throws IOException {
+    Job job = new Job(conf);
+    job.setJobName("Distributed Lzo Indexer " + name);
 
     job.setOutputKeyClass(Path.class);
     job.setOutputValueClass(LongWritable.class);
@@ -93,13 +181,38 @@ public int run(String[] args) throws Exception {
     // The LzoIndexOutputFormat doesn't currently work with speculative execution.
     // Patches welcome.
     job.getConfiguration().setBoolean(
-      "mapred.map.tasks.speculative.execution", false);
+        "mapred.map.tasks.speculative.execution", false);
 
     job.setJarByClass(DistributedLzoIndexer.class);
     job.setInputFormatClass(LzoSplitInputFormat.class);
     job.setOutputFormatClass(LzoIndexOutputFormat.class);
     job.setNumReduceTasks(0);
     job.setMapperClass(Mapper.class);
+    return job;
+  }
+
+  public int run(String[] args) throws Exception {
+    if (args.length == 0 || (args.length == 1 && "--help".equals(args[0]))) {
+      printUsage();
+      ToolRunner.printGenericCommandUsage(System.err);
+      return -1; // error
+    }
+
+    configure(conf);
+
+    List<Path> inputPaths = new ArrayList<Path>();
+    for (String strPath : args) {
+      visitPath(new Path(strPath), nonTemporaryFilter, inputPaths);
+    }
+
+    if (inputPaths.isEmpty()) {
+      LOG.info("No input paths found - perhaps all " +
+          ".lzo files have already been indexed.");
+      return 0;
+    }
+
+    String jobName = Arrays.toString(args);
+    Job job = createJob(conf, jobName);
 
     for (Path p : inputPaths) {
       FileInputFormat.addInputPath(job, p);
@@ -134,7 +247,13 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
     System.exit(exitCode);
   }
 
-  public static void printUsage() {
-    System.err.println("Usage: hadoop jar /path/to/this/jar com.hadoop.compression.lzo.DistributedLzoIndexer <file.lzo | directory> [file2.lzo directory3 ...]");
+  public void printUsage() {
+    String usage =
+        "Command: hadoop jar /path/to/this/jar com.hadoop.compression.lzo.DistributedLzoIndexer <file.lzo | directory> [file2.lzo directory3 ...]" +
+        "\nConfiguration options: \"key\" [values] <default> description" +
+        "\n" + LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY + " [true,false] <" + LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_DEFAULT + "> When indexing, skip files smaller than " + LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY + " bytes." +
+        "\n" + LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY + " [long] <" + LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_DEFAULT + "> When indexing, skip files smaller than this number of bytes if " + LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY + " is true." +
+        "\n" + LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_KEY + " [true,false] <" + LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_DEFAULT + "> When indexing, recurse into child directories of input paths.";
+    LOG.error(usage);
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/TestDistributedLzoIndexer.java b/src/test/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/TestDistributedLzoIndexer.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..07a54d89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/TestDistributedLzoIndexer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+package com.hadoop.compression.lzo;
+
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileStatus;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+
+public class TestDistributedLzoIndexer extends TestCase {
+  public void testConfigureDefaults() {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+    assertEquals(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_DEFAULT, indexer.getLzoRecursiveIndexing());
+    assertEquals(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_DEFAULT, indexer.getLzoSkipIndexingSmallFiles());
+    assertEquals(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_DEFAULT, indexer.getLzoSmallFileSize());
+  }
+
+  public void testConfigureSettings() {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setBoolean(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_RECURSIVE_KEY, false);
+    conf.setBoolean(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY, true);
+    conf.setLong(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY, 5 * 1024L);
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+    assertEquals(false, indexer.getLzoRecursiveIndexing());
+    assertEquals(true, indexer.getLzoSkipIndexingSmallFiles());
+    assertEquals(5 * 1024L, indexer.getLzoSmallFileSize());
+  }
+
+  protected void doTestIsSmallFile(long fileSize, long smallThreshold, boolean expectedResult) {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setLong(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY, smallThreshold);
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+    FileStatus status = new FileStatus(fileSize, false, 3, 512L, 100L, new Path("/tmp/my/file"));
+
+    assertEquals(expectedResult, indexer.isSmallFile(status));
+  }
+
+  public void testIsSmallFileSmaller() throws Exception {
+    doTestIsSmallFile(500L, 1000L, true);
+  }
+
+  public void testIsSmallFileEquals() throws Exception {
+    doTestIsSmallFile(500L, 500L, true);
+  }
+
+  public void testIsSmallFileGreater() throws Exception {
+    doTestIsSmallFile(500L, 200L, false);
+  }
+
+  public void testShouldIndexFileNotLzoFile() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    FileSystem fs = FileSystem.getLocal(conf);
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+
+    File tempFile = File.createTempFile("TestDistributedLzoIndexer", ".foo");
+    FileStatus status = new FileStatus(5L, false, 3, 512L, 100L, new Path(tempFile.getAbsolutePath()));
+
+    assertEquals(false, indexer.shouldIndexFile(status, fs));
+  }
+
+  public void testShouldIndexFileSkipSmallFiles() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setBoolean(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY, true);
+    conf.setLong(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY, 100L);
+    FileSystem fs = FileSystem.getLocal(conf);
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+
+    File tempFile = File.createTempFile("TestDistributedLzoIndexer", ".lzo");
+    FileStatus status = new FileStatus(50L, false, 3, 512L, 100L, new Path(tempFile.getAbsolutePath()));
+
+    assertEquals(false, indexer.shouldIndexFile(status, fs));
+  }
+
+  public void testShouldIndexFileIndexNonexistent() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setBoolean(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY, true);
+    conf.setLong(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY, 100L);
+    FileSystem fs = FileSystem.getLocal(conf);
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+
+    File tempFile = File.createTempFile("TestDistributedLzoIndexer", ".lzo");
+    FileStatus status = new FileStatus(200L, false, 3, 512L, 100L, new Path(tempFile.getAbsolutePath()));
+
+    assertEquals(true, indexer.shouldIndexFile(status, fs));
+  }
+
+  public void testShouldIndexFileEmptyIndexExists() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setBoolean(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY, true);
+    conf.setLong(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY, 100L);
+    FileSystem fs = FileSystem.getLocal(conf);
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+
+    File tempFile = File.createTempFile("TestDistributedLzoIndexer", ".lzo");
+    FileStatus status = new FileStatus(200L, false, 3, 512L, 100L, new Path(tempFile.getAbsolutePath()));
+
+    String tempFileIndexPath = tempFile.getAbsolutePath() + LzoIndex.LZO_INDEX_SUFFIX;
+    File tempFileIndex = new File(tempFileIndexPath);
+    if (!tempFileIndex.createNewFile()) {
+      throw new IOException("Could not create temp file for testing " + tempFileIndex);
+    }
+
+    assertEquals(true, indexer.shouldIndexFile(status, fs));
+  }
+
+  public void testShouldIndexFileIndexExists() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.setBoolean(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SKIP_SMALL_FILES_KEY, true);
+    conf.setLong(DistributedLzoIndexer.LZO_INDEXING_SMALL_FILE_SIZE_KEY, 100L);
+    FileSystem fs = FileSystem.getLocal(conf);
+    DistributedLzoIndexer indexer = new DistributedLzoIndexer();
+    indexer.configure(conf);
+
+    File tempFile = File.createTempFile("TestDistributedLzoIndexer", ".lzo");
+    FileStatus status = new FileStatus(200L, false, 3, 512L, 100L, new Path(tempFile.getAbsolutePath()));
+
+    String tempFileIndexPath = tempFile.getAbsolutePath() + LzoIndex.LZO_INDEX_SUFFIX;
+    File tempFileIndex = new File(tempFileIndexPath);
+
+    OutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(tempFileIndex);
+    fos.write(1);
+    fos.close();
+
+    assertEquals(false, indexer.shouldIndexFile(status, fs));
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/TestLzoRandData.java b/src/test/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/TestLzoRandData.java
index 025d2cd2..f8576328 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/TestLzoRandData.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/hadoop/compression/lzo/TestLzoRandData.java
@@ -14,15 +14,12 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.CompressionCodec;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.ReflectionUtils;
 
-import com.hadoop.compression.lzo.LzopCodec;
-
 /**
  * Unit Test for LZO with random data.
  */
 public class TestLzoRandData extends TestCase {
 
   Configuration conf;
-  CompressionCodec codec;
 
   @Override
   protected void setUp() throws Exception {