diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c5a12f4e5..63a004e36 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ option(LWS_HTTP_HEADERS_ALL "Override header reduction optimization and include
 option(LWS_WITH_SUL_DEBUGGING "Enable zombie lws_sul checking on object deletion" OFF)
 option(LWS_WITH_PLUGINS_API "Build generic lws_plugins apis (see LWS_WITH_PLUGINS to also build protocol plugins)" OFF)
 option(LWS_WITH_CONMON "Collect introspectable connection latency stats on individual client connections" ON)
+option(LWS_WITHOUT_EVENTFD "Force using pipe instead of eventfd" OFF)
 
 if (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Linux")
 	option(LWS_WITH_NETLINK "Monitor Netlink for Routing Table changes" ON)
diff --git a/lib/plat/unix/CMakeLists.txt b/lib/plat/unix/CMakeLists.txt
index 59558c4f2..b27bbb67b 100644
--- a/lib/plat/unix/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/lib/plat/unix/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ if (HAIKU)
 	list(APPEND LIB_LIST_AT_END network)
 endif()
 
-IF (CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL Linux)
+IF (CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL Linux AND NOT LWS_WITHOUT_EVENTFD)
 	CHECK_FUNCTION_EXISTS(eventfd_read LWS_HAVE_EVENTFD)
 endif()