configure.ac | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+)

diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 67599c0..3dae4d8 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -71,6 +71,20 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(xpdf-headers,
               enable_xpdf_headers="no")
 AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_XPDF_HEADERS, test x$enable_xpdf_headers = xyes)
 
+dnl ##### Emulate cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release using options from cmake/modules/PopplerMacros.cmake
+
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(release-mode,
+              AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-release-mode],
+                             [Build for a release with -O2 -DNDEBUG.]),
+              enable_release_mode=$enableval,
+              enable_release_mode="no")
+
+if test x"$enable_release_mode" = xyes; then
+    CFLAGS="-O2 -DNDEBUG $CFLAGS"
+    CPPFLAGS="-O2 -DNDEBUG $CPPFLAGS"
+    CXXFLAGS="-O2 -DNDEBUG $CXXFLAGS"
+fi
+
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(single-precision,
 [  --enable-single-precision     use single precision arithmetic (instead of double precision) in the Splash backend],
 AC_DEFINE(USE_FLOAT,      [1], [Use single precision arithmetic in the Splash backend]))
@@ -966,6 +980,9 @@ if test x$enable_cms = xyes;then
         echo "      with lcms2"
     fi
 fi
+if test x$enable_release_mode = xyes;then
+        echo "  release mode:       $enable_release_mode"
+fi
 echo "  command line utils: $enable_utils"
 echo "  test data dir:      $TESTDATADIR"
 echo ""