diff --git a/changelog b/changelog
index 77d7f8bb..820310b4 100644
--- a/changelog
+++ b/changelog
@@ -74,7 +74,10 @@ the visual studio project files that were in the tree until now.
 
  - cutomizable frame rx buffer size by protocol
 
-
+ - By default debug is enabled and the library is built for -O0 -g to faclitate
+	that.  Use --disable-debug configure option to build instead with -O4
+	and no -g (debug info), obviously providing best performance and
+	reduced binary size.
 
 v1.1-chrome26-firefox18
 =======================
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 1e4ae42a..1c3959a2 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ AC_INIT(libwebsockets, 1.1, andy@warmcat.com, libwebsockets, http://libwebsocket
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([test-server/test-server.c])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
 
+: ${CFLAGS=""}
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall -Werror foreign])
 AM_PROG_AR
 LT_INIT(shared)
diff --git a/lib/Makefile.am b/lib/Makefile.am
index a54d7533..f24ef130 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile.am
+++ b/lib/Makefile.am
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ endif
 if DISABLE_DEBUG
 libwebsockets_la_CFLAGS+= -O4
 else
-libwebsockets_la_CFLAGS+= -g
+libwebsockets_la_CFLAGS+= -O0 -g
 endif
 
 if MINGW