diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f4c0b091dcf4..e213b27f3921 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 *.gcno
 modules.builtin
 Module.symvers
+*.dwo
 
 #
 # Top-level generic files
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 89fe23a0825c..e5a269465f99 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -684,7 +684,11 @@ endif
 endif
 
 ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO
+ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_SPLIT
+KBUILD_CFLAGS   += $(call cc-option, -gsplit-dwarf, -g)
+else
 KBUILD_CFLAGS	+= -g
+endif
 KBUILD_AFLAGS	+= -Wa,-gdwarf-2
 endif
 
@@ -1372,6 +1376,7 @@ clean: $(clean-dirs)
 	@find $(if $(KBUILD_EXTMOD), $(KBUILD_EXTMOD), .) $(RCS_FIND_IGNORE) \
 		\( -name '*.[oas]' -o -name '*.ko' -o -name '.*.cmd' \
 		-o -name '*.ko.*' \
+		-o -name '*.dwo'  \
 		-o -name '.*.d' -o -name '.*.tmp' -o -name '*.mod.c' \
 		-o -name '*.symtypes' -o -name 'modules.order' \
 		-o -name modules.builtin -o -name '.tmp_*.o.*' \
diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.debug b/lib/Kconfig.debug
index 7cfcc1b8e101..910355da9d14 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig.debug
+++ b/lib/Kconfig.debug
@@ -143,6 +143,21 @@ config DEBUG_INFO_REDUCED
 	  DEBUG_INFO build and compile times are reduced too.
 	  Only works with newer gcc versions.
 
+config DEBUG_INFO_SPLIT
+	bool "Produce split debuginfo in .dwo files"
+	depends on DEBUG_INFO
+	help
+	  Generate debug info into separate .dwo files. This significantly
+	  reduces the build directory size for builds with DEBUG_INFO,
+	  because it stores the information only once on disk in .dwo
+	  files instead of multiple times in object files and executables.
+	  In addition the debug information is also compressed.
+
+	  Requires recent gcc (4.7+) and recent gdb/binutils.
+	  Any tool that packages or reads debug information would need
+	  to know about the .dwo files and include them.
+	  Incompatible with older versions of ccache.
+
 config ENABLE_WARN_DEPRECATED
 	bool "Enable __deprecated logic"
 	default y