diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index f80ba4b0c..2d9cc0ca5 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ SMALL_OPTS =
 # not use them at all. Some even more obscure ones might also be available
 # without appearing here. Currently defined DEBUG macros include DEBUG_FULL,
 # DEBUG_MEM_STATS, DEBUG_DONT_SHARE_POOLS, DEBUG_NO_LOCKLESS_POOLS, DEBUG_FD,
-# DEBUG_NO_LOCAL_POOLS, DEBUG_FAIL_ALLOC, DEBUG_STRICT_NOCRASH, DEBUG_HPACK,
+# DEBUG_NO_POOLS, DEBUG_FAIL_ALLOC, DEBUG_STRICT_NOCRASH, DEBUG_HPACK,
 # DEBUG_AUTH, DEBUG_SPOE, DEBUG_UAF, DEBUG_THREAD, DEBUG_STRICT, DEBUG_DEV,
 # DEBUG_TASK.
 DEBUG =
diff --git a/include/haproxy/pool-t.h b/include/haproxy/pool-t.h
index 7dc99c182..4b185ef9a 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/pool-t.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/pool-t.h
@@ -26,6 +26,13 @@
 #include <haproxy/list-t.h>
 #include <haproxy/thread-t.h>
 
+/* Pools are always enabled unless explicitly disabled. When disabled, the
+ * calls are directly passed to the underlying OS functions.
+ */
+#if !defined(DEBUG_NO_POOLS) && !defined(DEBUG_UAF) && !defined(DEBUG_FAIL_ALLOC)
+#define CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
+#endif
+
 /* On architectures supporting threads and double-word CAS, we can implement
  * lock-less memory pools. This isn't supported for debugging modes however.
  */
@@ -33,20 +40,13 @@
 #define CONFIG_HAP_LOCKLESS_POOLS
 #endif
 
-/* On architectures supporting threads we can amortize the locking cost using
- * local pools.
- */
-#if defined(USE_THREAD) && !defined(DEBUG_NO_LOCAL_POOLS) && !defined(DEBUG_UAF) && !defined(DEBUG_FAIL_ALLOC)
-#define CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
-#endif
-
 /* On modern architectures with many threads, a fast memory allocator, and
  * local pools, the global pools with their single list can be way slower than
  * the standard allocator which already has its own per-thread arenas. In this
  * case we disable global pools. The global pools may still be enforced
  * using CONFIG_HAP_GLOBAL_POOLS though.
  */
-#if defined(USE_THREAD) && defined(HA_HAVE_FAST_MALLOC) && defined(CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS) && !defined(CONFIG_HAP_GLOBAL_POOLS)
+#if defined(USE_THREAD) && defined(HA_HAVE_FAST_MALLOC) && defined(CONFIG_HAP_POOLS) && !defined(CONFIG_HAP_GLOBAL_POOLS)
 #define CONFIG_HAP_NO_GLOBAL_POOLS
 #endif
 
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ struct pool_head {
 	unsigned int failed;	/* failed allocations */
 	struct list list;	/* list of all known pools */
 	char name[12];		/* name of the pool */
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 	struct pool_cache_head cache[MAX_THREADS]; /* pool caches */
 #endif
 } __attribute__((aligned(64)));
diff --git a/include/haproxy/pool.h b/include/haproxy/pool.h
index 526c57c2d..92fb6dfbf 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/pool.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/pool.h
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ static inline int pool_is_crowded(const struct pool_head *pool)
 }
 
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 
 /****************** Thread-local cache management ******************/
 
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ static inline void pool_put_to_cache(struct pool_head *pool, void *ptr)
 		pool_evict_from_cache();
 }
 
-#endif // CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#endif // CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 
 
 #if defined(CONFIG_HAP_NO_GLOBAL_POOLS)
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ static inline void *__pool_alloc(struct pool_head *pool, unsigned int flags)
 {
 	void *p;
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 	if (likely(p = __pool_get_from_cache(pool)))
 		goto ret;
 #endif
@@ -330,7 +330,7 @@ static inline void pool_free(struct pool_head *pool, void *ptr)
 		if (unlikely(mem_poison_byte >= 0))
 			memset(ptr, mem_poison_byte, pool->size);
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 		/* put the object back into the cache only if there are not too
 		 * many objects yet in this pool (no more than half of the cached
 		 * is used or this pool uses no more than 1/8 of the cache size).
diff --git a/include/haproxy/tinfo-t.h b/include/haproxy/tinfo-t.h
index d1a4fc4e8..1285c731a 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/tinfo-t.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/tinfo-t.h
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ struct thread_info {
 	unsigned int idle_pct;     /* idle to total ratio over last sample (percent) */
 	unsigned int flags;        /* thread info flags, TI_FL_* */
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 	struct list pool_lru_head;                         /* oldest objects   */
 #endif
 	struct list buffer_wq;     /* buffer waiters */
diff --git a/src/pool.c b/src/pool.c
index 6f19ec783..b493a933e 100644
--- a/src/pool.c
+++ b/src/pool.c
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 #include <haproxy/tools.h>
 
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 /* These ones are initialized per-thread on startup by init_pools() */
 THREAD_LOCAL size_t pool_cache_bytes = 0;                /* total cache size */
 THREAD_LOCAL size_t pool_cache_count = 0;                /* #cache objects   */
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ struct pool_head *create_pool(char *name, unsigned int size, unsigned int flags)
 		pool->flags = flags;
 		LIST_ADDQ(start, &pool->list);
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 		/* update per-thread pool cache if necessary */
 		for (thr = 0; thr < MAX_THREADS; thr++) {
 			LIST_INIT(&pool->cache[thr].list);
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ struct pool_head *create_pool(char *name, unsigned int size, unsigned int flags)
 	return pool;
 }
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 /* Evicts some of the oldest objects from the local cache, pushing them to the
  * global pool.
  */
@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@ void create_pool_callback(struct pool_head **ptr, char *name, unsigned int size)
 /* Initializes all per-thread arrays on startup */
 static void init_pools()
 {
-#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_LOCAL_POOLS
+#ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 	int thr;
 
 	for (thr = 0; thr < MAX_THREADS; thr++) {