--- a/configure.ac	2014-09-10 21:06:26.000000000 -0400
+++ b/configure.ac	2017-05-23 10:43:59.051759539 -0400
@@ -703,24 +703,6 @@
   AC_HELP_STRING([--with-debug], [compile with debugging symbols]),
   DEBUG_SYMBOLS=$withval, DEBUG_SYMBOLS="yes")
 AC_MSG_RESULT([DEBUG_SYMBOLS=$DEBUG_SYMBOLS])
-dnl  remove -O* and add -g
-if test "$DEBUG_SYMBOLS" = 'yes'; then
-  AC_MSG_RESULT([before tweak CFLAGS=$CFLAGS])
-  CFLAGS=`echo $CFLAGS | sed 's/ \?-O[[^ ]]*//g'`
-  AC_MSG_RESULT([mid tweak CFLAGS=$CFLAGS])
-  case $CFLAGS in
-    *-g*)
-      ;;
-    *)
-      if test "$CFLAGS" = ''; then
-        CFLAGS="-g"
-      else
-        CFLAGS="-g $CFLAGS"
-      fi
-      ;;
-  esac
-  AC_MSG_RESULT([after tweak CFLAGS=$CFLAGS])
-fi
 
 dnl if using gcc, we can be very strict
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(gcc_warnings, [