diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 6188ab91..ae277e93 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ zstdmt
 # Test artefacts
 tmp*
 *.zst
+*.zstd
 dictionary.
 dictionary
 NUL
diff --git a/programs/fileio.c b/programs/fileio.c
index b27f314a..1f2dabf4 100644
--- a/programs/fileio.c
+++ b/programs/fileio.c
@@ -2555,6 +2555,9 @@ int FIO_decompressFilename(FIO_ctx_t* const fCtx, FIO_prefs_t* const prefs,
 static const char *suffixList[] = {
     ZSTD_EXTENSION,
     TZSTD_EXTENSION,
+#ifndef ZSTD_NODECOMPRESS
+    ZSTD_ALT_EXTENSION,
+#endif
 #ifdef ZSTD_GZDECOMPRESS
     GZ_EXTENSION,
     TGZ_EXTENSION,
diff --git a/programs/fileio.h b/programs/fileio.h
index bec651a1..1a0a35de 100644
--- a/programs/fileio.h
+++ b/programs/fileio.h
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ extern "C" {
 
 #define ZSTD_EXTENSION  ".zst"
 #define TZSTD_EXTENSION ".tzst"
+#define ZSTD_ALT_EXTENSION  ".zstd" /* allow decompression of .zstd files */
 
 #define LZ4_EXTENSION   ".lz4"
 #define TLZ4_EXTENSION  ".tlz4"
diff --git a/tests/playTests.sh b/tests/playTests.sh
index d9407db8..72a02918 100755
--- a/tests/playTests.sh
+++ b/tests/playTests.sh
@@ -1128,10 +1128,13 @@ if [ $LZ4MODE -ne 1 ]; then
     grep ".lz4" tmplg > $INTOVOID && die "Unsupported suffix listed"
 fi
 
+touch tmp1
+zstd tmp1 -o tmp1.zstd
+zstd -d tmp1.zstd   # support .zstd suffix even though it's not the default suffix
 
 println "\n===>  tar extension tests "
 
-rm -f tmp tmp.tar tmp.tzst tmp.tgz tmp.txz tmp.tlz4
+rm -f tmp tmp.tar tmp.tzst tmp.tgz tmp.txz tmp.tlz4 tmp1.zstd
 
 datagen > tmp
 tar cf tmp.tar tmp