diff --git a/doc/dwarfsextract.md b/doc/dwarfsextract.md
index 577e85255..5390ca182 100644
--- a/doc/dwarfsextract.md
+++ b/doc/dwarfsextract.md
@@ -44,6 +44,17 @@ to disk:
   case the default is to extract the files to the current directory, or
   to write the archive data to stdout.
 
+- `--pattern=`*glob-pattern*:
+  If specified, only extract entries matching the pattern. Can be specified
+  multiple times, in which case all files matching one or more patterns will
+  be extracted. Can also be specified without `--pattern` for simplicity.
+  If prefixed with `i:`, the glob pattern match will be case-insensitive,
+  e.g. `i:**/*.txt` would match all `.txt`, `.TXT` and `.tXt` files. If you
+  want the *actual* pattern to start with `i:`, you have to prefix the
+  pattern with `:`, i.e. `:i:...`. The glob patterns support the wildcards
+  `*` and `?`, character classes (`[avt]`), ranges (`[a-h]`), complementation
+  (`[!a-h]`) and globstar (`**`).
+
 - `-O`, `--image-offset=`*value*|`auto`:
   Specify the byte offset at which the filesystem is located in the image.
   Use `auto` to detect the offset automatically. This is also the default.
diff --git a/include/dwarfs/utility/filesystem_extractor.h b/include/dwarfs/utility/filesystem_extractor.h
index 88da00ed3..c9fd3af0f 100644
--- a/include/dwarfs/utility/filesystem_extractor.h
+++ b/include/dwarfs/utility/filesystem_extractor.h
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 
 namespace dwarfs {
 
+class glob_matcher;
 class library_dependencies;
 class logger;
 class os_access;
@@ -72,7 +73,13 @@ class filesystem_extractor {
   bool extract(reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs,
                filesystem_extractor_options const& opts =
                    filesystem_extractor_options()) {
-    return impl_->extract(fs, opts);
+    return impl_->extract(fs, nullptr, opts);
+  }
+
+  bool extract(reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs, glob_matcher const* matcher,
+               filesystem_extractor_options const& opts =
+                   filesystem_extractor_options()) {
+    return impl_->extract(fs, matcher, opts);
   }
 
   class impl {
@@ -84,8 +91,9 @@ class filesystem_extractor {
     virtual void open_stream(std::ostream& os, std::string const& format) = 0;
     virtual void open_disk(std::filesystem::path const& output) = 0;
     virtual void close() = 0;
-    virtual bool extract(reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs,
-                         filesystem_extractor_options const& opts) = 0;
+    virtual bool
+    extract(reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs, glob_matcher const* matcher,
+            filesystem_extractor_options const& opts) = 0;
   };
 
  private:
diff --git a/src/utility/filesystem_extractor.cpp b/src/utility/filesystem_extractor.cpp
index b81cdef6b..7d03af442 100644
--- a/src/utility/filesystem_extractor.cpp
+++ b/src/utility/filesystem_extractor.cpp
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 #include <memory>
 #include <mutex>
 #include <thread>
+#include <unordered_set>
 
 // This is required to avoid Windows.h being pulled in by libarchive
 // and polluting our environment with all sorts of shit.
@@ -41,6 +42,7 @@
 
 #include <dwarfs/file_stat.h>
 #include <dwarfs/fstypes.h>
+#include <dwarfs/glob_matcher.h>
 #include <dwarfs/library_dependencies.h>
 #include <dwarfs/logger.h>
 #include <dwarfs/os_access.h>
@@ -188,7 +190,7 @@ class filesystem_extractor_ final : public filesystem_extractor::impl {
     }
   }
 
-  bool extract(reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs,
+  bool extract(reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs, glob_matcher const* matcher,
                filesystem_extractor_options const& opts) override;
 
  private:
@@ -248,7 +250,8 @@ class filesystem_extractor_ final : public filesystem_extractor::impl {
 
 template <typename LoggerPolicy>
 bool filesystem_extractor_<LoggerPolicy>::extract(
-    reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs, filesystem_extractor_options const& opts) {
+    reader::filesystem_v2 const& fs, glob_matcher const* matcher,
+    filesystem_extractor_options const& opts) {
   DWARFS_CHECK(a_, "filesystem not opened");
 
   auto lr = ::archive_entry_linkresolver_new();
@@ -350,6 +353,23 @@ bool filesystem_extractor_<LoggerPolicy>::extract(
     }
   };
 
+  std::unordered_set<std::filesystem::path> matched_dirs;
+
+  if (matcher) {
+    fs.walk([&](auto entry) {
+      if (!entry.inode().is_directory()) {
+        if (matcher->match(entry.unix_path())) {
+          while (auto parent = entry.parent()) {
+            if (!matched_dirs.insert(parent->fs_path()).second) {
+              break;
+            }
+            entry = *parent;
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    });
+  }
+
   fs.walk_data_order([&](auto entry) {
     // TODO: we can surely early abort walk() somehow
     if (entry.is_root() || hard_error) {
@@ -358,6 +378,23 @@ bool filesystem_extractor_<LoggerPolicy>::extract(
 
     auto inode = entry.inode();
 
+    if (matcher) {
+      LOG_TRACE << "checking " << entry.unix_path();
+      if (inode.is_directory()) {
+        if (!matched_dirs.contains(entry.fs_path())) {
+          LOG_TRACE << "skipping directory " << entry.fs_path();
+          // no need to extract this directory
+          return;
+        }
+      } else {
+        if (!matcher->match(entry.unix_path())) {
+          LOG_TRACE << "skipping " << entry.fs_path();
+          // no match, skip this entry
+          return;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
     auto ae = ::archive_entry_new();
     auto stbuf = fs.getattr(inode);
 
diff --git a/test/tool_main_test.cpp b/test/tool_main_test.cpp
index 6a1b4fc24..0a012e894 100644
--- a/test/tool_main_test.cpp
+++ b/test/tool_main_test.cpp
@@ -2000,6 +2000,37 @@ TEST(dwarfsextract_test, mtree) {
   EXPECT_THAT(out, ::testing::HasSubstr("type=file"));
 }
 
+TEST(dwarfsextract_test, patterns) {
+  auto mkdt = mkdwarfs_tester::create_empty();
+  mkdt.add_test_file_tree();
+  ASSERT_EQ(0, mkdt.run({"-i", "/", "-o", "-", "--with-devices"}) != 0)
+      << mkdt.err();
+  auto t = dwarfsextract_tester::create_with_image(mkdt.out());
+  ASSERT_EQ(0, t.run({"-i", "image.dwarfs", "-f", "mtree", "**/*.enc",
+                      "{dev,etc,lib,var}/[m-ot-z]*"}))
+      << t.err();
+  auto out = t.out();
+  EXPECT_TRUE(out.starts_with("#mtree")) << out;
+  std::vector<std::string> const expected{
+      "./dev",
+      "./dev/tty37",
+      "./etc",
+      "./etc/netconfig",
+      "./usr",
+      "./usr/lib64",
+      "./usr/lib64/tcl8.6",
+      "./usr/lib64/tcl8.6/encoding",
+      "./usr/lib64/tcl8.6/encoding/cp950.enc",
+      "./usr/lib64/tcl8.6/encoding/iso8859-8.enc",
+  };
+  auto mtree = test::parse_mtree(out);
+  std::vector<std::string> actual;
+  for (auto const& entry : mtree) {
+    actual.push_back(entry.first);
+  }
+  EXPECT_EQ(expected, actual);
+}
+
 TEST(dwarfsextract_test, stdout_progress_error) {
   auto t = dwarfsextract_tester::create_with_image();
   EXPECT_NE(0,
diff --git a/tools/src/dwarfsextract_main.cpp b/tools/src/dwarfsextract_main.cpp
index e830efe1a..6fc4dd1db 100644
--- a/tools/src/dwarfsextract_main.cpp
+++ b/tools/src/dwarfsextract_main.cpp
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include <boost/program_options.hpp>
 
 #include <dwarfs/config.h>
+#include <dwarfs/glob_matcher.h>
 #include <dwarfs/library_dependencies.h>
 #include <dwarfs/logger.h>
 #include <dwarfs/mmap.h>
@@ -77,6 +78,9 @@ int dwarfsextract_main(int argc, sys_char** argv, iolayer const& iol) {
     ("output,o",
         po_sys_value<sys_string>(&output),
         "output file or directory")
+    ("pattern",
+        po::value<std::vector<std::string>>(),
+        "only extract files matching these patterns")
     ("image-offset,O",
         po::value<std::string>(&image_offset)->default_value("auto"),
         "filesystem image offset in bytes")
@@ -111,10 +115,17 @@ int dwarfsextract_main(int argc, sys_char** argv, iolayer const& iol) {
 
   tool::add_common_options(opts, logopts);
 
+  po::positional_options_description pos;
+  pos.add("pattern", -1);
+
   po::variables_map vm;
 
   try {
-    po::store(po::parse_command_line(argc, argv, opts), vm);
+    po::store(po::basic_command_line_parser<sys_char>(argc, argv)
+                  .options(opts)
+                  .positional(pos)
+                  .run(),
+              vm);
     po::notify(vm);
   } catch (po::error const& e) {
     iol.err << "error: " << e.what() << "\n";
@@ -141,6 +152,13 @@ int dwarfsextract_main(int argc, sys_char** argv, iolayer const& iol) {
     return 0;
   }
 
+  std::unique_ptr<glob_matcher> matcher;
+
+  if (vm.count("pattern")) {
+    matcher = std::make_unique<glob_matcher>(
+        vm["pattern"].as<std::vector<std::string>>());
+  }
+
   int rv = 0;
 
   try {
@@ -214,7 +232,7 @@ int dwarfsextract_main(int argc, sys_char** argv, iolayer const& iol) {
       };
     }
 
-    rv = fsx.extract(fs, fsx_opts) ? 0 : 2;
+    rv = fsx.extract(fs, matcher.get(), fsx_opts) ? 0 : 2;
 
     fsx.close();