diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index 5c0c0d06..fd68b3ee 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #                  trace   - print trace before the error/warning messages
 #                  abort   - call abort() on first error (dumps core)
 #                  all     - shortcut for all of the above
+#                  asan    - enable address sanitizer compiler feature
 #   W=123          build with warnings (default: off)
 #   DEBUG_CFLAGS   additional compiler flags for debugging build
 #   EXTRA_CFLAGS   additional compiler flags
@@ -145,6 +146,10 @@ ifneq (,$(findstring all,$(D)))
   DEBUG_CFLAGS_INTERNAL += -DDEBUG_ABORT_ON_ERROR=1
 endif
 
+ifneq (,$(findstring asan,$(D)))
+  DEBUG_CFLAGS_INTERNAL += -fsanitize=address
+endif
+
 MAKEOPTS = --no-print-directory Q=$(Q)
 
 # build all by default