diff --git a/src/Makefile b/src/Makefile
index 3fd601ff..2ad22de4 100644
--- a/src/Makefile
+++ b/src/Makefile
@@ -321,11 +321,13 @@ endif
 ### This is a mix of compile and link time options because the lto link phase
 ### needs access to the optimization flags.
 ifeq ($(comp),gcc)
-	GCC_MAJOR := `$(CXX) -dumpversion | cut -f1 -d.`
-	GCC_MINOR := `$(CXX) -dumpversion | cut -f2 -d.`
-	ifeq (1,$(shell expr \( $(GCC_MAJOR) \> 4 \) \| \( $(GCC_MAJOR) \= 4 \& $(GCC_MINOR) \>= 5 \)))
-		CXXFLAGS += -flto
-		LDFLAGS += $(CXXFLAGS)
+	ifeq ($(optimize),yes)
+		GCC_MAJOR := `$(CXX) -dumpversion | cut -f1 -d.`
+		GCC_MINOR := `$(CXX) -dumpversion | cut -f2 -d.`
+		ifeq (1,$(shell expr \( $(GCC_MAJOR) \> 4 \) \| \( $(GCC_MAJOR) \= 4 \& $(GCC_MINOR) \>= 5 \)))
+			CXXFLAGS += -flto
+			LDFLAGS += $(CXXFLAGS)
+		endif
 	endif
 endif