diff --git a/builder/build.go b/builder/build.go
index 5c38433b..c1fd78e3 100644
--- a/builder/build.go
+++ b/builder/build.go
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ func Build(pkgName, outpath string, config *compileopts.Config, action func(Buil
 		AutomaticStackSize: config.AutomaticStackSize(),
 		DefaultStackSize:   config.Target.DefaultStackSize,
 		NeedsStackObjects:  config.NeedsStackObjects(),
-		Debug:              config.Debug(),
+		Debug:              true,
 		LLVMFeatures:       config.LLVMFeatures(),
 	}
 
@@ -539,6 +539,39 @@ func Build(pkgName, outpath string, config *compileopts.Config, action func(Buil
 		return fmt.Errorf("unknown libc: %s", config.Target.Libc)
 	}
 
+	// Strip debug information with -no-debug.
+	if !config.Debug() {
+		for _, tag := range config.BuildTags() {
+			if tag == "baremetal" {
+				// Don't use -no-debug on baremetal targets. It makes no sense:
+				// the debug information isn't flashed to the device anyway.
+				return fmt.Errorf("stripping debug information is unnecessary for baremetal targets")
+			}
+		}
+		if config.Target.Linker == "wasm-ld" {
+			// Don't just strip debug information, also compress relocations
+			// while we're at it. Relocations can only be compressed when debug
+			// information is stripped.
+			ldflags = append(ldflags, "--strip-debug", "--compress-relocations")
+		} else {
+			switch config.GOOS() {
+			case "linux":
+				// Either real linux or an embedded system (like AVR) that
+				// pretends to be Linux. It's a ELF linker wrapped by GCC in any
+				// case.
+				ldflags = append(ldflags, "-Wl,--strip-debug")
+			case "darwin":
+				// MacOS (darwin) doesn't have a linker flag to strip debug
+				// information. Apple expects you to use the strip command
+				// instead.
+				return errors.New("cannot remove debug information: MacOS doesn't suppor this linker flag")
+			default:
+				// Other OSes may have different flags.
+				return errors.New("cannot remove debug information: unknown OS: " + config.GOOS())
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	// Create a linker job, which links all object files together and does some
 	// extra stuff that can only be done after linking.
 	jobs = append(jobs, &compileJob{
diff --git a/compileopts/config.go b/compileopts/config.go
index 36782506..f2ba2857 100644
--- a/compileopts/config.go
+++ b/compileopts/config.go
@@ -209,9 +209,8 @@ func (c *Config) CFlags() []string {
 		cflags = append(cflags, "-nostdlibinc", "-Xclang", "-internal-isystem", "-Xclang", filepath.Join(root, "lib", "picolibc", "newlib", "libc", "include"))
 		cflags = append(cflags, "-I"+filepath.Join(root, "lib/picolibc-include"))
 	}
-	if c.Debug() {
-		cflags = append(cflags, "-g")
-	}
+	// Always emit debug information. It is optionally stripped at link time.
+	cflags = append(cflags, "-g")
 	return cflags
 }
 
@@ -250,8 +249,9 @@ func (c *Config) VerifyIR() bool {
 	return c.Options.VerifyIR
 }
 
-// Debug returns whether to add debug symbols to the IR, for debugging with GDB
-// and similar.
+// Debug returns whether debug (DWARF) information should be retained by the
+// linker. By default, debug information is retained but it can be removed with
+// the -no-debug flag.
 func (c *Config) Debug() bool {
 	return c.Options.Debug
 }
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 7c3ee96d..c9fd0c04 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -1019,7 +1019,7 @@ func main() {
 	printStacks := flag.Bool("print-stacks", false, "print stack sizes of goroutines")
 	printAllocsString := flag.String("print-allocs", "", "regular expression of functions for which heap allocations should be printed")
 	printCommands := flag.Bool("x", false, "Print commands")
-	nodebug := flag.Bool("no-debug", false, "disable DWARF debug symbol generation")
+	nodebug := flag.Bool("no-debug", false, "strip debug information")
 	ocdCommandsString := flag.String("ocd-commands", "", "OpenOCD commands, overriding target spec (can specify multiple separated by commas)")
 	ocdOutput := flag.Bool("ocd-output", false, "print OCD daemon output during debug")
 	port := flag.String("port", "", "flash port (can specify multiple candidates separated by commas)")