diff --git a/doc/NEWS.Rd b/doc/NEWS.Rd
index 926eab462df..ec8eec275e9 100644
--- a/doc/NEWS.Rd
+++ b/doc/NEWS.Rd
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 \title{R News}
 \encoding{UTF-8}
 
-\section{\Rlogo CHANGES IN R-devel}{
+\section{\Rlogo CHANGES IN R 3.6.0}{
 
    \subsection{SIGNIFICANT USER-VISIBLE CHANGES}{
      \itemize{
@@ -442,14 +442,16 @@
       \item The make macro \samp{F_VISIBILITY} is now preferred for
       both fixed-form and free-form Fortran.
 
-      \item \command{R CMD INSTALL} gains a new flag \option{--strip}
+      \item \command{R CMD INSTALL} gains a new option \option{--strip}
       which strips installed shared object(s): this can also be achieved
       by setting the environment variable \env{_R_SHLIB_STRIP_} to a
       true value.
 
-      This is most useful on platforms using GNU \code{binutils} (such
-      as Linux) and compiling with \option{-g} flags: it has negligible
-      effect on macOS.
+      The new option \option{--strip-lib} attempts stripping of
+      static and shared libraries installed under \file{lib}.
+
+      These are most useful on platforms using GNU \code{binutils} (such
+      as Linux) and compiling with \option{-g} flags.
       
       \item There is more support for installing UTF-8-encoded packages
       in a strict Latin-1 locale (and probably for other Latin locales):
diff --git a/src/library/tools/R/install.R b/src/library/tools/R/install.R
index 42bcc056971..c7c621cf259 100644
--- a/src/library/tools/R/install.R
+++ b/src/library/tools/R/install.R
@@ -226,6 +226,7 @@ if(FALSE) {
             "      --configure-vars=VARS",
             "			set variables for the configure scripts (if any)",
             "      --strip           strip shared object(s)",
+            "      --strip-lib       strip static/dynamic libraries under lib/",
             "      --dsym            (macOS only) generate dSYM directory",
             "      --built-timestamp=STAMP",
             "                   set timestamp for Built: entry in DESCRIPTION",
@@ -1682,6 +1683,27 @@ if(FALSE) {
                            sQuote("--no-staged-install"))
             }
         }
+
+        if (do_strip_lib &&
+            nzchar(strip_cmd <- Sys.getenv("R_STRIP_STATIC_LIB")) &&
+            length(a_s <- Sys.glob(file.path(file.path(lib, curPkg),
+                                             "lib", "*.a")))) {
+            if(length(a_s) > 1L)
+                starsmsg(stars, "stripping static libraries under lib")
+            else
+                starsmsg(stars, "stripping static library under lib")
+            system(paste(c(strip_cmd, shQuote(a_s)), collapse = " "))
+        }
+        if (do_strip_lib &&
+            nzchar(strip_cmd <- Sys.getenv("R_STRIP_SHARED_LIB")) &&
+            length(so_s <- Sys.glob(file.path(file.path(lib, curPkg), "lib",
+                                              paste0("*", SHLIB_EXT))))) {
+            if(length(so_s) > 1L)
+                starsmsg(stars, "stripping dynamic libraries under lib")
+            else
+                starsmsg(stars, "stripping dynamic library under lib")
+            system(paste(c(strip_cmd, shQuote(so_s)), collapse = " "))
+        }
     }
 
     options(showErrorCalls = FALSE)
@@ -1741,7 +1763,7 @@ if(FALSE) {
     install_inst <- TRUE
     install_help <- TRUE
     install_tests <- FALSE
-    do_strip <- FALSE
+    do_strip <- do_strip_lib <- FALSE
 
     while(length(args)) {
         a <- args[1L]
@@ -1870,6 +1892,8 @@ if(FALSE) {
             dsym <- TRUE
         } else if (a == "--strip") {
             do_strip <- TRUE
+        } else if (a == "--strip-lib") {
+            do_strip_lib <- TRUE
         } else if (substr(a, 1, 18) == "--built-timestamp=") {
             built_stamp <- substr(a, 19, 1000)
         } else if (startsWith(a, "-")) {