The value of the DEBUG variable is append to CXXFLAGS, thereby overwriting the optimization level set in the CXXFLAGS environment variable (-Os on alpine by default). Since we prefer to use our optimization level DEBUG needs to be unset. diff -upr snapcast-0.15.0.orig/client/Makefile snapcast-0.15.0/client/Makefile --- snapcast-0.15.0.orig/client/Makefile 2018-10-14 13:27:11.247287578 +0200 +++ snapcast-0.15.0/client/Makefile 2018-10-14 13:27:26.187330181 +0200 @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ else endif # Simplify building debuggable executables 'make DEBUG=-g STRIP=echo' -DEBUG=-O3 +DEBUG= CXXFLAGS += $(ADD_CFLAGS) -std=c++0x -Wall -Wno-unused-function $(DEBUG) -DHAS_FLAC -DHAS_OGG -DASIO_STANDALONE -DVERSION=\"$(VERSION)\" -I. -I.. -isystem ../externals/asio/asio/include -I../externals/popl/include -I../externals/aixlog/include -I../externals -I../common diff -upr snapcast-0.15.0.orig/server/Makefile snapcast-0.15.0/server/Makefile --- snapcast-0.15.0.orig/server/Makefile 2018-10-14 13:27:11.257287607 +0200 +++ snapcast-0.15.0/server/Makefile 2018-10-14 13:27:18.830642536 +0200 @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ else endif # Simplify building debuggable executables 'make DEBUG=-g STRIP=echo' -DEBUG=-O3 +DEBUG= CXXFLAGS += $(ADD_CFLAGS) -std=c++0x -Wall -Wno-unused-function $(DEBUG) -DHAS_FLAC -DHAS_OGG -DHAS_VORBIS -DHAS_VORBIS_ENC -DASIO_STANDALONE -DVERSION=\"$(VERSION)\" -I. -I.. -isystem ../externals/asio/asio/include -I../externals/popl/include -I../externals/aixlog/include -I../externals -I../common