diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 6da4eb317c..4899d896de 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -601,6 +601,10 @@ if get_option('tsan')
   qemu_ldflags = ['-fsanitize=thread'] + qemu_ldflags
 endif
 
+if get_option('debug') and get_option('split_debug')
+  qemu_cflags += '-gsplit-dwarf'
+endif
+
 # Detect support for PT_GNU_RELRO + DT_BIND_NOW.
 # The combination is known as "full relro", because .got.plt is read-only too.
 qemu_ldflags += cc.get_supported_link_arguments('-Wl,-z,relro', '-Wl,-z,now')
@@ -4583,6 +4587,8 @@ if have_rust
   summary_info += {'bindgen':         bindgen.full_path()}
   summary_info += {'bindgen version': bindgen.version()}
 endif
+# option_cflags is purely for the summary display, meson will pass
+# -g/-O options directly
 option_cflags = (get_option('debug') ? ['-g'] : [])
 if get_option('optimization') != 'plain'
   option_cflags += ['-O' + get_option('optimization')]
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 59d973bca0..3432123fee 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -362,6 +362,8 @@ option('debug_mutex', type: 'boolean', value: false,
        description: 'mutex debugging support')
 option('debug_stack_usage', type: 'boolean', value: false,
        description: 'measure coroutine stack usage')
+option('split_debug', type: 'boolean', value: true,
+       description: 'split debug info from object files')
 option('qom_cast_debug', type: 'boolean', value: true,
        description: 'cast debugging support')
 option('slirp_smbd', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
diff --git a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
index 3e8e00852b..aca6e68830 100644
--- a/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
+++ b/scripts/meson-buildoptions.sh
@@ -504,6 +504,8 @@ _meson_option_parse() {
     --disable-strict-rust-lints) printf "%s" -Dstrict_rust_lints=false ;;
     --enable-strip) printf "%s" -Dstrip=true ;;
     --disable-strip) printf "%s" -Dstrip=false ;;
+    --enable-split-debug) printf "%s" -Dsplit_debug=true ;;
+    --disable-split-debug) printf "%s" -Dsplit_debug=false ;;
     --sysconfdir=*) quote_sh "-Dsysconfdir=$2" ;;
     --enable-tcg) printf "%s" -Dtcg=enabled ;;
     --disable-tcg) printf "%s" -Dtcg=disabled ;;