diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java
index a5b037e..1f9695c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/tar/TarArchiveEntry.java
@@ -77,6 +77,11 @@
  * } header;
  * All unused bytes are set to null.
  * New-style GNU tar files are slightly different from the above.
+ * For values of size larger than 077777777777L (11 7s)
+ * or uid and gid larger than 07777777L (7 7s)
+ * the sign bit of the first byte is set, and the rest of the
+ * field is the binary representation of the number.
+ * See TarUtils.parseOctalOrBinary.
  * </pre>
  * 
  * <p>