diff --git a/src/basic/compress.c b/src/basic/compress.c
index 0f62fb95f5..55a204f9ce 100644
--- a/src/basic/compress.c
+++ b/src/basic/compress.c
@@ -424,6 +424,32 @@ int dlopen_bzip2(int log_level) {
 #endif
 }
 
+int dlopen_compress_journal(Compression c, int log_level) {
+        switch (c) {
+        case COMPRESSION_NONE:
+                return 0;
+        case COMPRESSION_XZ:
+                return dlopen_xz(log_level);
+        case COMPRESSION_LZ4:
+                return dlopen_lz4(log_level);
+        case COMPRESSION_ZSTD:
+                return dlopen_zstd(log_level);
+        default:
+                return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+        }
+}
+
+int dlopen_compress(Compression c, int log_level) {
+        switch (c) {
+        case COMPRESSION_GZIP:
+                return dlopen_zlib(log_level);
+        case COMPRESSION_BZIP2:
+                return dlopen_bzip2(log_level);
+        default:
+                return dlopen_compress_journal(c, log_level);
+        }
+}
+
 static int compress_blob_xz(
                 const void *src,
                 uint64_t src_size,
diff --git a/src/basic/compress.h b/src/basic/compress.h
index f46b787f0c..e20713a8b7 100644
--- a/src/basic/compress.h
+++ b/src/basic/compress.h
@@ -102,6 +102,12 @@ int dlopen_zstd(int log_level) _dlopen_loader_;
 int dlopen_zlib(int log_level) _dlopen_loader_;
 int dlopen_bzip2(int log_level) _dlopen_loader_;
 
+int dlopen_compress(Compression c, int log_level);
+int dlopen_compress_journal(Compression c, int log_level);
+static inline int dlopen_compress_default(int log_level) {
+        return dlopen_compress_journal(DEFAULT_COMPRESSION, log_level);
+}
+
 static inline const char* default_compression_extension(void) {
         return compression_extension_to_string(DEFAULT_COMPRESSION) ?: "";
 }
diff --git a/test/test-dlopen-note.py b/test/test-dlopen-note.py
index 295a0bc69c..5cb995eed7 100755
--- a/test/test-dlopen-note.py
+++ b/test/test-dlopen-note.py
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ except ImportError:
 # Function filter: Maps wrapper/sentinel symbols to real symbols or an empty list (ignore).
 FUNCTION_FILTER = {
     # Filtered out (internal helpers, verbose loggers, sentinels)
+    'dlopen_compress': [],
+    'dlopen_compress_journal': [],
+    'dlopen_compress_default': [],
     'dlopen_safe': [],
     'dlopen_verbose': [],
     'dlopen_many_sym_or_warn_sentinel': [],