diff --git a/cmake/XRootDDefaults.cmake b/cmake/XRootDDefaults.cmake
index 5a505c63c4d..665caa89f36 100644
--- a/cmake/XRootDDefaults.cmake
+++ b/cmake/XRootDDefaults.cmake
@@ -19,4 +19,5 @@ option( ENABLE_TESTS     "Enable unit tests."
 option( ENABLE_HTTP      "Enable HTTP component."                                         TRUE )
 option( ENABLE_PYTHON    "Enable python bindings."                                        TRUE )
 option( XRDCL_ONLY       "Build only the client and necessary dependencies"               FALSE )
+option( XRDCL_LIB_ONLY   "Build only the client libraries and necessary dependencies"     FALSE )
 define_default( XRD_PYTHON_REQ_VERSION 2.4 )
diff --git a/packaging/wheel/install.sh b/packaging/wheel/install.sh
index 580c63cdd0a..2b196916dbf 100755
--- a/packaging/wheel/install.sh
+++ b/packaging/wheel/install.sh
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ cd xrootdbuild
 # set the respective version of python
 # replace the default BINDIR with a custom one that can be easily removed afterwards
 #    (for the python bindings we don't want to install the binaries)
-CMAKE_ARGS="-DXRDCL_ONLY=TRUE -DENABLE_PYTHON=TRUE -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$1 -DXRD_PYTHON_REQ_VERSION=$2 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR=$startdir/xrootdbuild/bin"
+CMAKE_ARGS="-DXRDCL_LIB_ONLY=TRUE  -DENABLE_PYTHON=TRUE -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$1 -DXRD_PYTHON_REQ_VERSION=$2 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR=$startdir/xrootdbuild/bin"
 
 cmake .. $CMAKE_ARGS
 
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 7dd2518f90d..a7ed0dbfc1e 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Include the subcomponents
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+if( XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
+  set ( XRDCL_ONLY TRUE )
+endif()
+
 include( XrdUtils )
 include( XrdApps )
 include( XrdCrypto )
@@ -57,6 +61,7 @@ endif()
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Install the utility scripts
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+if( NOT XRDCL_ONLY )
 install(
   FILES
   ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/utils/XrdCmsNotify.pm
@@ -68,7 +73,9 @@ install(
   OWNER_EXECUTE OWNER_WRITE OWNER_READ
   GROUP_EXECUTE GROUP_READ
   WORLD_EXECUTE WORLD_READ )
+endif()
 
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Install xrootd-config
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -102,3 +109,4 @@ install(
         COMMAND mv -f \${MANPAGE}.new \${MANPAGE} )
     ENDFOREACH()"
 )
+endif()
diff --git a/src/XrdCl/CMakeLists.txt b/src/XrdCl/CMakeLists.txt
index b4fa405c263..c457cc81f76 100644
--- a/src/XrdCl/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/XrdCl/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ set_target_properties(
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # xrdfs
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
 add_executable(
   xrdfs
   XrdClFS.cc
@@ -122,10 +123,12 @@ target_link_libraries(
   XrdCl
   ${READLINE_LIBRARY}
   ${NCURSES_LIBRARY} )
+endif()
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # xrdcopy
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
 add_executable(
   xrdcp
   XrdClCopy.cc )
@@ -134,15 +137,23 @@ target_link_libraries(
   xrdcp
   XrdCl
   XrdAppUtils )
+endif()
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Install
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 install(
-  TARGETS XrdCl xrdfs xrdcp
+  TARGETS XrdCl
   RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
   LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} )
 
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
+install(
+  TARGETS xrdfs xrdcp
+  RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
+  LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} )
+endif()
+
 install(
   FILES
     XrdClAnyObject.hh
@@ -174,11 +185,12 @@ install(
     XrdClOperationHandlers.hh
     XrdClArg.hh
     XrdClFwd.hh
-	XrdClParallelOperation.hh
-	XrdClFileOperations.hh
-	XrdClFileSystemOperations.hh
+    XrdClParallelOperation.hh
+    XrdClFileOperations.hh
+    XrdClFileSystemOperations.hh
   DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/xrootd/private/XrdCl )
 
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
 install(
   FILES
   ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/docs/man/xrdfs.1
@@ -213,3 +225,5 @@ install(
         WORKING_DIRECTORY \$ENV{DESTDIR}/${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/${CMAKE_INSTALL_MANDIR}/man1 )
     ENDFOREACH()"
 )
+
+endif()
diff --git a/src/XrdSec.cmake b/src/XrdSec.cmake
index 9bf108eb5fa..068582f6ad7 100644
--- a/src/XrdSec.cmake
+++ b/src/XrdSec.cmake
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ set_target_properties(
   INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES ""
   LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES "" )
 
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # xrdpwdadmin
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -98,6 +99,7 @@ target_link_libraries(
   xrdpwdadmin
   XrdCrypto
   XrdUtils )
+endif()
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # The XrdSecsss module
@@ -119,6 +121,7 @@ set_target_properties(
   INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES ""
   LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES "" )
 
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # xrdsssadmin
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -129,6 +132,7 @@ add_executable(
 target_link_libraries(
   xrdsssadmin
   XrdUtils )
+endif()
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # The XrdSecunix module
@@ -154,6 +158,12 @@ set_target_properties(
 install(
   TARGETS
   ${LIB_XRD_SEC} ${LIB_XRD_SEC_PWD} ${LIB_XRD_SEC_SSS} ${LIB_XRD_SEC_UNIX} ${LIB_XRD_SEC_PROT}
+  RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
+  LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} )
+
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
+install(
+  TARGETS
   xrdsssadmin xrdpwdadmin
   RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
   LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} )
@@ -163,3 +173,4 @@ install(
   ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/docs/man/xrdsssadmin.8
   ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/docs/man/xrdpwdadmin.8
   DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_MANDIR}/man8 )
+endif()
diff --git a/src/XrdSecgsi.cmake b/src/XrdSecgsi.cmake
index 1d5890513e1..3c7ce427f60 100644
--- a/src/XrdSecgsi.cmake
+++ b/src/XrdSecgsi.cmake
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ set_target_properties(
   INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES ""
   LINK_INTERFACE_LIBRARIES "" )
 
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # xrdgsiproxy
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -90,6 +91,7 @@ target_link_libraries(
   XrdCrypto
   XrdUtils
   ${OPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY} )
+endif()
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Install
@@ -99,6 +101,12 @@ install(
   ${LIB_XRD_SEC_GSI}
   ${LIB_XRD_SEC_GSI_AUTHZVO}
   ${LIB_XRD_SEC_GSI_GMAPDN}
+  RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
+  LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} )
+
+if( NOT XRDCL_LIB_ONLY )
+install(
+  TARGETS
   xrdgsiproxy
   xrdgsitest
   RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
@@ -109,3 +117,6 @@ install(
   ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/docs/man/xrdgsiproxy.1
   ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/docs/man/xrdgsitest.1
   DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_MANDIR}/man1 )
+
+endif()
+