diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 3a1ef44..42b73c5 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ AC_CHECK_LIB(argtable2, arg_parse,,AC_MSG_ERROR(Could not find the argtable2 lib
 Download and install from http://argtable.sourceforge.net/
 or make sure that the libraries can be found by setting
 LD_LIBRARY_PATH correctly.))
+
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(debug,
+	      AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-debug], [enable debugging mode]),
+	      AC_DEFINE(DEBUG,1," compile with debugging support"))
                   
 VERSION="0.0.1"
 SUBDIRS=src