diff --git a/make/autoconf/flags-ldflags.m4 b/make/autoconf/flags-ldflags.m4
index 572790b567b..18ec04d92b7 100644
--- a/make/autoconf/flags-ldflags.m4
+++ b/make/autoconf/flags-ldflags.m4
@@ -108,6 +108,9 @@ AC_DEFUN([FLAGS_SETUP_LDFLAGS_HELPER],
 
   # Setup OS-dependent LDFLAGS
   if test "x$OPENJDK_TARGET_OS" = xmacosx && test "x$TOOLCHAIN_TYPE" = xclang; then
+    if test x$DEBUG_LEVEL = xrelease; then
+      BASIC_LDFLAGS_JDK_ONLY="$BASIC_LDFLAGS_JDK_ONLY -Wl,-dead_strip"
+    fi
     # FIXME: We should really generalize SetSharedLibraryOrigin instead.
     OS_LDFLAGS_JVM_ONLY="-Wl,-rpath,@loader_path/. -Wl,-rpath,@loader_path/.."
     OS_LDFLAGS="-mmacosx-version-min=$MACOSX_VERSION_MIN -Wl,-reproducible"