diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index 983b8b9a..95c42705 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 #                  all     - shortcut for all of the above
 #                  asan    - enable address sanitizer compiler feature
 #                  ubsan   - undefined behaviour sanitizer compiler feature
+#                  bcheck  - extended build checks
 #   W=123          build with warnings (default: off)
 #   DEBUG_CFLAGS   additional compiler flags for debugging build
 #   EXTRA_CFLAGS   additional compiler flags
@@ -161,6 +162,10 @@ ifneq (,$(findstring ubsan,$(D)))
   DEBUG_CFLAGS_INTERNAL += -fsanitize=undefined
 endif
 
+ifneq (,$(findstring bcheck,$(D)))
+  DEBUG_CFLAGS_INTERNAL += -DDEBUG_BUILD_CHECKS
+endif
+
 MAKEOPTS = --no-print-directory Q=$(Q)
 
 # build all by default
diff --git a/kerncompat.h b/kerncompat.h
index 4a8f8135..ed9a0425 100644
--- a/kerncompat.h
+++ b/kerncompat.h
@@ -70,7 +70,11 @@
 
 #define __token_glue(a,b,c)	___token_glue(a,b,c)
 #define ___token_glue(a,b,c)	a ## b ## c
+#ifdef DEBUG_BUILD_CHECKS
 #define BUILD_ASSERT(x)		extern int __token_glue(compile_time_assert_,__LINE__,__COUNTER__)[1-2*!(x)] __attribute__((unused))
+#else
+#define BUILD_ASSERT(x)
+#endif
 
 #ifndef BTRFS_DISABLE_BACKTRACE
 #define MAX_BACKTRACE	16