diff --git a/vars.mk b/vars.mk
index 36263747..df4f4736 100644
--- a/vars.mk
+++ b/vars.mk
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ ETCDIR	?= $(PREFIX)/etc
 TOPDIR	?= ..
 INSTALL_STRIPPED ?= -s
 
+ifdef DEBUG
+INSTALL_STRIPPED=
+DEBUG_FLAGS = -g
+endif
+
 STATIC_LIBS ?= -lprop -lpthread -larchive
 LDFLAGS +=  -L$(TOPDIR)/lib -L$(PREFIX)/lib -lxbps
 CPPFLAGS += -I$(TOPDIR)/include -D_BSD_SOURCE -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=600
@@ -20,4 +25,4 @@ CPPFLAGS += -D_GNU_SOURCE
 WARNFLAGS ?= -pedantic -std=c99 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -Wshadow -Wformat=2
 WARNFLAGS += -Wmissing-declarations -Wcomment -Wunused-macros -Wendif-labels
 WARNFLAGS += -Wcast-qual -Wcast-align -Wconversion
-CFLAGS += $(WARNFLAGS) -O2 -fPIC -DPIC
+CFLAGS = $(DEBUG_FLAGS) $(WARNFLAGS) -O2 -fPIC -DPIC