diff --git a/src/vfs/tar/tar-internal.h b/src/vfs/tar/tar-internal.h
index 0ce75afd8..b9abab377 100644
--- a/src/vfs/tar/tar-internal.h
+++ b/src/vfs/tar/tar-internal.h
@@ -268,8 +268,8 @@ struct tar_stat_info
     gboolean is_sparse;         /**< is the file sparse */
 
     /* For sparse files */
-    unsigned int sparse_major;
-    unsigned int sparse_minor;
+    intmax_t sparse_major;
+    intmax_t sparse_minor;
     GArray *sparse_map;         /**< array of struct sp_array */
 
     off_t real_size;            /**< real size of sparse file */
diff --git a/src/vfs/tar/tar-xheader.c b/src/vfs/tar/tar-xheader.c
index 41fc02828..ce70c26c2 100644
--- a/src/vfs/tar/tar-xheader.c
+++ b/src/vfs/tar/tar-xheader.c
@@ -772,7 +772,7 @@ sparse_major_decoder (struct tar_stat_info *st, const char *keyword, const char
 
     (void) size;
 
-    if (!decode_num (&u, arg, TYPE_MAXIMUM (unsigned), keyword))
+    if (!decode_num (&u, arg, INTMAX_MAX, keyword))
           return FALSE;
 
     st->sparse_major = u;
@@ -788,7 +788,7 @@ sparse_minor_decoder (struct tar_stat_info *st, const char *keyword, const char
 
     (void) size;
 
-    if (!decode_num (&u, arg, TYPE_MAXIMUM (unsigned), keyword))
+    if (!decode_num (&u, arg, INTMAX_MAX, keyword))
           return FALSE;
 
     st->sparse_minor = u;