diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 6976cabd4a4..79582d8e644 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -209,12 +209,11 @@ debug-assertions = false
 overflow-checks = false
 rpath = false
 
-# The release profile, used for `cargo build --release`
 [profile.release]
 opt-level = 3
-debug = true
-codegen-units = 1 # TODO: remove this once rust-lang/rust#50199 and rust-lang/rust#53833 are resolved.
-lto = true
+debug = false
+codegen-units = 1
+lto = "thin"
 incremental = false
 panic = 'abort'
 debug-assertions = false
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 5df43a80924..6e08ea21d48 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,3 +1,36 @@
+# The TiKV Makefile
+#
+# These are mostly light rules around cargo and in general developers
+# can do daily development using cargo alone. It does do a few key
+# things that developers need to understand:
+#
+# It turns on features that are not on by default in the cargo
+# manifest but that are part of the release build (see the
+# ENABLE_FEATURES variable).
+#
+# The `clippy` rule runs clippy with custom configuration, so
+# is the correct way to run clippy against TiKV.
+#
+# The `test` rule runs tests in configurations that are not covered by `cargo
+# test` by default.
+#
+# Important make rules:
+#
+# - `build` - create a development profile, unoptimized build
+#
+# - `run` - run a development build
+#
+# - `test` - run the test suite in a variety of configurations
+#
+# - `format` - reformat the code with cargo format
+#
+# - `clippy` - run clippy with tikv-specific configuration
+#
+# - `dev` - the rule that needs to pass before submitting a PR. It runs
+#   tests and static analysis including clippy and rustfmt
+#
+# - `release` - create a release profile, optimized build
+
 SHELL := /bin/bash
 ENABLE_FEATURES ?=
 
@@ -37,6 +70,7 @@ BIN_PATH = $(CURDIR)/bin
 GOROOT ?= $(DEPS_PATH)/go
 CARGO_TARGET_DIR ?= $(CURDIR)/target
 
+# Build-time environment, captured for reporting by the application binary
 BUILD_INFO_GIT_FALLBACK := "Unknown (no git or not git repo)"
 BUILD_INFO_RUSTC_FALLBACK := "Unknown"
 export TIKV_BUILD_TIME := $(shell date -u '+%Y-%m-%d %I:%M:%S')
@@ -54,20 +88,14 @@ default: release
 
 .PHONY: all
 
-all: format build test
+clean:
+	cargo clean
 
-pre-clippy: unset-override
-	@rustup component add clippy
 
-clippy: pre-clippy
-	@cargo clippy --all --all-targets -- \
-		-A clippy::module_inception -A clippy::needless_pass_by_value -A clippy::cognitive_complexity \
-		-A clippy::unreadable_literal -A clippy::should_implement_trait -A clippy::verbose_bit_mask \
-		-A clippy::implicit_hasher -A clippy::large_enum_variant -A clippy::new_without_default \
-		-A clippy::neg_cmp_op_on_partial_ord -A clippy::too_many_arguments \
-		-A clippy::excessive_precision -A clippy::collapsible_if -A clippy::blacklisted_name \
-		-A clippy::needless_range_loop -D rust-2018-idioms -A clippy::redundant_closure \
-		-A clippy::match_wild_err_arm -A clippy::blacklisted_name
+## Development builds
+## ------------------
+
+all: format build test
 
 dev: format clippy
 	@env FAIL_POINT=1 make test
@@ -75,65 +103,70 @@ dev: format clippy
 build:
 	cargo build  --no-default-features --features "${ENABLE_FEATURES}"
 
-ctl:
-	cargo build --release --no-default-features --features "${ENABLE_FEATURES}" --bin tikv-ctl
-	@mkdir -p ${BIN_PATH}
-	@cp -f ${CARGO_TARGET_DIR}/release/tikv-ctl ${BIN_PATH}/
-
 run:
 	cargo run --no-default-features --features  "${ENABLE_FEATURES}" --bin tikv-server
 
+
+## Release builds (optimized dev builds)
+## ----------------------------
+
+# These builds are heavily optimized, but only use thinLTO, not full
+# LTO, and they don't include debuginfo by default.
+
 # An optimized build suitable for development and benchmarking, by default built
 # with RocksDB compiled with the "portable" option, for -march=x86-64 (an
 # sse2-level instruction set), but with sse4.2 and the PCLMUL instruction
 # enabled (the "sse" option)
 release:
-	make dist_release
+	cargo build --release --no-default-features --features "${ENABLE_FEATURES}"
 
 # An optimized build that builds an "unportable" RocksDB, which means it is
 # built with -march native. It again includes the "sse" option by default.
 unportable_release:
-	make dist_unportable_release
+	ROCKSDB_SYS_PORTABLE=0 make release
 
 # An optimized build with jemalloc memory profiling enabled.
 prof_release:
-	make dist_prof_release
+	ENABLE_FEATURES=mem-profiling make release
 
 # An optimized build instrumented with failpoints.
 # This is used for schrodinger chaos testing.
 fail_release:
-	make dist_fail_release
+	FAIL_POINT=1 make release
+
+
+## Distribution builds (true release builds)
+## -------------------
+
+# These builds are fully optimized, with LTO, and they contain
+# debuginfo. They take a very long time to build, so it is recommended
+# not to use them.
 
 # The target used by CI/CD to build the distributable release artifacts.
 # Individual developers should only need to use the `dist_` rules when working
 # on the CI/CD system.
 dist_release:
-	make build_release
+	make build_dist_release
 	@mkdir -p ${BIN_PATH}
 	@cp -f ${CARGO_TARGET_DIR}/release/tikv-ctl ${CARGO_TARGET_DIR}/release/tikv-server ${CARGO_TARGET_DIR}/release/tikv-importer ${BIN_PATH}/
 	bash scripts/check-sse4_2.sh
 
+# Build with release flag as if it were for distribution, but without
+# additional sanity checks and file movement.
+build_dist_release:
+	make x-build-dist
+
 # Distributable bins with SSE4.2 optimizations
 dist_unportable_release:
-	ROCKSDB_SYS_PORTABLE=0 make release
-
-# Distributable bins with jemalloc memory profiling
-dist_prof_release:
-	ENABLE_FEATURES=mem-profiling make release
-
-# Distributable bins instrumented with failpoints.
-# This is used for schrodinger chaos testing.
-dist_fail_release:
-	FAIL_POINT=1 make release
+	ROCKSDB_SYS_PORTABLE=0 make dist_release
 
-# Build with release flag
-build_release:
-	cargo build --no-default-features --release --features "${ENABLE_FEATURES}"
 
-# unlike test, this target will trace tests and output logs when fail test is detected.
-trace_test:
-	env CI=true SKIP_FORMAT_CHECK=true FAIL_POINT=1 ${PROJECT_DIR}/ci-build/test.sh
+## Testing
+## -------
 
+# Run tests under a variety of conditions. This should pass before
+# submitting pull requests. Note though that the CI system tests TiKV
+# through its own scripts and does not use this rule.
 test:
         # When SIP is enabled, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH will not work in subshell, so we have to set it
         # again here. LOCAL_DIR is defined in .travis.yml.
@@ -153,6 +186,10 @@ test:
 	fi
 	bash scripts/check-bins-for-jemalloc.sh
 
+
+## Static analysis
+## ---------------
+
 unset-override:
 	@# unset first in case of any previous overrides
 	@if rustup override list | grep `pwd` > /dev/null; then rustup override unset; fi
@@ -164,6 +201,19 @@ format: pre-format
 	@cargo fmt --all -- --check >/dev/null || \
 	cargo fmt --all
 
+pre-clippy: unset-override
+	@rustup component add clippy
+
+clippy: pre-clippy
+	@cargo clippy --all --all-targets -- \
+		-A clippy::module_inception -A clippy::needless_pass_by_value -A clippy::cognitive_complexity \
+		-A clippy::unreadable_literal -A clippy::should_implement_trait -A clippy::verbose_bit_mask \
+		-A clippy::implicit_hasher -A clippy::large_enum_variant -A clippy::new_without_default \
+		-A clippy::neg_cmp_op_on_partial_ord -A clippy::too_many_arguments \
+		-A clippy::excessive_precision -A clippy::collapsible_if -A clippy::blacklisted_name \
+		-A clippy::needless_range_loop -D rust-2018-idioms -A clippy::redundant_closure \
+		-A clippy::match_wild_err_arm -A clippy::blacklisted_name
+
 pre-audit:
 	$(eval LATEST_AUDIT_VERSION := $(strip $(shell cargo search cargo-audit | head -n 1 | awk '{ gsub(/"/, "", $$3); print $$3 }')))
 	$(eval CURRENT_AUDIT_VERSION = $(strip $(shell (cargo audit --version 2> /dev/null || echo "noop 0") | awk '{ print $$2 }')))
@@ -171,77 +221,41 @@ pre-audit:
 		cargo install cargo-audit --force; \
 	fi
 
+# Check for security vulnerabilities
 audit: pre-audit
 	cargo audit
 
-clean:
-	cargo clean
 
+## Special targets
+## ---------------
+
+# A special target for building just the tikv-ctl binary and release mode and copying it
+# into BIN_PATH. It's not clear who uses this for what. If you know please document it.
+ctl:
+	cargo build --release --no-default-features --features "${ENABLE_FEATURES}" --bin tikv-ctl
+	@mkdir -p ${BIN_PATH}
+	@cp -f ${CARGO_TARGET_DIR}/release/tikv-ctl ${BIN_PATH}/
+
+# A special target for testing only "coprocessor::dag::expr"
+# per https://github.com/tikv/tikv/pull/3280
 expression: format clippy
 	LOG_LEVEL=ERROR RUST_BACKTRACE=1 cargo test --features "${ENABLE_FEATURES}" "coprocessor::dag::expr" --no-default-features -- --nocapture
 
 
+## The driver for script/run-cargo.sh
+## ----------------------------------
 
-# The below x- targets are temporary, for experimenting with new profiles,
-# specifically in pursuit of compile time speedups.
-#
-# re https://github.com/tikv/tikv/issues/4189
-#
-# The idea here is that there are more "profiles" than just "dev" and "release".
-# In particular, there is an optimized dev profile, here "dev-opt". The below
-# profiles are intentionally named differently from the stock cargo 'dev'
-# and 'release' profiles to avoid confusion, but eventually we might expect
-# e.g. dev-opt to become the 'release' and 'bench' profiles, and 'dev-opt'
-# to become the 'dev' and perhaps 'test' profiles; with the _real_ release
-# profile being created with a config file.
-#
-# They can be invoked as:
-#
-#     $ make x-build-dev-nopt-quick # An unoptimized build
-#                                   #   (fastest build / slow run)
-#                                   #   (no debug assertions or overflow checks)
-#     $ make x-build-dev-nopt       # An unoptimized build
-#                                   #   (fast build / slow run)
-#     $ make x-build-dev-opt        # A mostly-optimized dev profile
-#                                   #   (slower build / faster run)
-#     $ make x-build-prod           # A release build
-#                                   #   (slowest build / fastest run)
-#     $ make x-bench                # Run benches mostly-optimized
-#                                   #   (slower build / faster run)
-#     $ make x-test                 # Run tests unoptimized
-#                                   #   (fast build / slow run)
-#
-# Use cases:
-#
-#   testing with fastest turnaround       - dev-nopt-quick
-#   testing                               - dev-nopt-quick
-#   casual benchmarking                   - dev-opt
-#   benchmarking with full release config - prod
-#   building the release for publish      - prod
-#
-# The below rules all rely on using a .cargo/config file to override various
-# profiles. Within those config files we'll experiment with compile-time
-# optimizations which can't be done with Cargo.toml alone.
-#
-# Eventually, we'll merge as much of the configs into Cargo.toml as possible,
-# and merge the below commands into the rest of the makefile.
-#
-# None of the build profiles has debuginfo on by default because it increases
-# the build time by ~20%. The easiest way to build with debuginfo is by setting
-# the DEBUG makefile variable,
-#
-#     $ make x-build DEBUG=1
-#
-# To pass extra arguments to cargo you can set CARGO_ARGS,
+# Cargo only has two non-test profiles, dev and release, and we have
+# more than two use cases for which a cargo profile is required. This
+# is a hack to manage more cargo profiles, written in
+# `etc/cargo.config.*`. These make use of the unstable
+# `-Zconfig-profile` cargo option to specify profiles in
+# `.cargo/config`, which `scripts/run-cargo.sh copies into place.
 #
-#     $ make x-build CARGO_ARGS="--all"
+# Presently the only thing this is used for is the `dist_release`
+# rules, which are used for producing release builds.
 
-DEV_OPT_CONFIG=etc/cargo.config.dev-opt
-DEV_NOPT_CONFIG=etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt
-DEV_NOPT_QUICK_CONFIG=etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt-quick
-PROD_CONFIG=etc/cargo.config.prod
-TEST_CONFIG=etc/cargo.config.test
-BENCH_CONFIG=etc/cargo.config.bench
+DIST_CONFIG=etc/cargo.config.dist
 
 ifneq ($(DEBUG),)
 export X_DEBUG=${DEBUG}
@@ -249,94 +263,9 @@ endif
 
 export X_CARGO_ARGS:=${CARGO_ARGS}
 
-x-build-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_CMD=build
-x-build-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-build-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=0
-x-build-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${DEV_NOPT_QUICK_CONFIG}
-x-build-dev-nopt-quick:
+x-build-dist: export X_CARGO_CMD=build
+x-build-dist: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
+x-build-dist: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=1
+x-build-dist: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${DIST_CONFIG}
+x-build-dist:
 	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-x-build-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_CMD=build
-x-build-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-build-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=0
-x-build-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${DEV_NOPT_CONFIG}
-x-build-dev-nopt:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-x-build-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_CMD=build
-x-build-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-build-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=1
-x-build-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${DEV_OPT_CONFIG}
-x-build-dev-opt:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-x-build-prod: export X_CARGO_CMD=build
-x-build-prod: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-build-prod: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=1
-x-build-prod: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${PROD_CONFIG}
-x-build-prod:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-# "run" commands for the above
-#
-# these need to be run with CARGO_ARGS="--bin tikv-server" etc
-
-x-run-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_CMD=run
-x-run-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-run-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=0
-x-run-dev-nopt-quick: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${DEV_NOPT_QUICK_CONFIG}
-x-run-dev-nopt-quick:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-x-run-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_CMD=run
-x-run-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-run-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=0
-x-run-dev-nopt: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${DEV_NOPT_CONFIG}
-x-run-dev-nopt:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-x-run-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_CMD=run
-x-run-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-run-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=1
-x-run-dev-opt: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${DEV_OPT_CONFIG}
-x-run-dev-opt:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-x-run-prod: export X_CARGO_CMD=run
-x-run-prod: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-run-prod: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=1
-x-run-prod: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${PROD_CONFIG}
-x-run-prod:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-# bench and test targets
-
-x-test: export X_CARGO_CMD=test
-x-test: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-test: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=0
-x-test: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${TEST_CONFIG}
-x-test:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-x-bench: export X_CARGO_CMD=bench
-x-bench: export X_CARGO_FEATURES=${ENABLE_FEATURES}
-x-bench: export X_CARGO_RELEASE=0
-x-bench: export X_CARGO_CONFIG_FILE=${BENCH_CONFIG}
-x-bench:
-	bash scripts/run-cargo.sh
-
-# Devs might want to use the config files but not the makefiles.
-# These are rules to put each config file in place.
-
-x-dev-opt-config:
-	mkdir -p .cargo && cp -b "${DEV_OPT_CONFIG}" .cargo/config
-
-x-dev-nopt-config:
-	mkdir -p .cargo && cp -b "${DEV_NOPT_CONFIG}" .cargo/config
-
-x-prod-config:
-	mkdir -p .cargo && cp -b "${PROD_CONFIG}" .cargo/config
-
-x-clean:
-	-rm -r .cargo
-	cargo clean
diff --git a/etc/cargo.config.bench b/etc/cargo.config.bench
deleted file mode 100644
index dd5854e05df..00000000000
--- a/etc/cargo.config.bench
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
-# Configuration for `cargo bench`, similar to dev-opt.
-# For some reason we override the bench profile by
-# overriding the release profile.
-# See https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/48683#issuecomment-473731715
-
-[profile.release]
-opt-level = 3
-debug = false
-rpath = false
-lto = "thin"
-debug-assertions = false
-codegen-units = 1
-# panic = "unwind" // can't set panic for bench profile
-incremental = true
-overflow-checks = false
diff --git a/etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt b/etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt
deleted file mode 100644
index d1296c658fc..00000000000
--- a/etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-# Configuration for `cargo build` without `--release`.
-
-[profile.dev]
-opt-level = 0
-debug = false
-rpath = false
-lto = false
-debug-assertions = true
-codegen-units = 4
-panic = "abort"
-incremental = true
-overflow-checks = true
diff --git a/etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt-quick b/etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt-quick
deleted file mode 100644
index 5203102c020..00000000000
--- a/etc/cargo.config.dev-nopt-quick
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-# Configuration for `cargo build` without `--release`.
-
-[profile.dev]
-opt-level = 0
-debug = false
-rpath = false
-lto = false
-debug-assertions = false
-codegen-units = 4
-panic = "abort"
-incremental = true
-overflow-checks = false
diff --git a/etc/cargo.config.dev-opt b/etc/cargo.config.dev-opt
deleted file mode 100644
index ecc57c3554d..00000000000
--- a/etc/cargo.config.dev-opt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-# Configuration for casual benchmarking. Fast build + fast runtime.
-
-[profile.release]
-opt-level = 3
-debug = false
-rpath = false
-lto = "thin"
-debug-assertions = false
-codegen-units = 1
-panic = "abort"
-incremental = false
-overflow-checks = false
diff --git a/etc/cargo.config.prod b/etc/cargo.config.dist
similarity index 100%
rename from etc/cargo.config.prod
rename to etc/cargo.config.dist
diff --git a/etc/cargo.config.test b/etc/cargo.config.test
deleted file mode 100644
index a09c56d82ff..00000000000
--- a/etc/cargo.config.test
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
-# Configuration for `cargo test`, similar to dev-nopt.
-# For some reason we override the test profile by
-# overriding the debug profile.
-# See https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/48683#issuecomment-473731715
-
-[profile.dev]
-opt-level = 0
-debug = 1 # enable line numbers by default for easy test debugging
-rpath = false
-lto = false
-debug-assertions = true
-codegen-units = 16
-# panic = "unwind" // can't set panic for test profile
-incremental = true
-overflow-checks = true