diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index d05a6468..07563217 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -460,6 +460,15 @@ if(USE_JEMALLOC)
   list(APPEND INCLUDE_DIRS ${Jemalloc_INCLUDE_DIRS})
 endif()
 
+set(DWARFS_USE_EXCEPTION_TRACER OFF)
+if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL Release)
+  if(NOT STATIC_BUILD_DO_NOT_USE)
+    if(TARGET folly_exception_tracer)
+      set(DWARFS_USE_EXCEPTION_TRACER ON)
+    endif()
+  endif()
+endif()
+
 add_library(
   thrift_light
   ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/fbthrift/thrift/lib/cpp2/FieldRef.cpp
@@ -510,6 +519,10 @@ foreach(tgt dwarfs ${BINARY_TARGETS})
             $<$<BOOL:${LIBLZMA_FOUND}>:DWARFS_HAVE_LIBLZMA>
             $<$<BOOL:${WITH_PYTHON}>:DWARFS_HAVE_PYTHON>)
 
+  if(DWARFS_USE_EXCEPTION_TRACER)
+    target_compile_definitions(${tgt} PRIVATE DWARFS_USE_EXCEPTION_TRACER)
+  endif()
+
   target_compile_options(${tgt} PRIVATE -Wall -Wextra -pedantic)
 
   set_property(TARGET ${tgt} PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 17)
@@ -597,7 +610,7 @@ foreach(tgt ${BINARY_TARGETS})
   if(USE_JEMALLOC)
     target_link_libraries(${tgt} ${Jemalloc_LIBRARIES})
   endif()
-  if(TARGET folly_exception_tracer)
+  if(DWARFS_USE_EXCEPTION_TRACER)
     target_link_libraries(
       ${tgt} -Wl,--whole-archive folly_exception_tracer_base
       folly_exception_tracer -Wl,--no-whole-archive)
diff --git a/src/dwarfs/error.cpp b/src/dwarfs/error.cpp
index 72c98eb8..26769cc4 100644
--- a/src/dwarfs/error.cpp
+++ b/src/dwarfs/error.cpp
@@ -24,9 +24,12 @@
 #include <iostream>
 
 #include <folly/String.h>
-#include <folly/experimental/exception_tracer/ExceptionTracer.h>
 #include <folly/experimental/symbolizer/SignalHandler.h>
 
+#ifdef DWARFS_USE_EXCEPTION_TRACER
+#include <folly/experimental/exception_tracer/ExceptionTracer.h>
+#endif
+
 #include "dwarfs/error.h"
 
 namespace dwarfs {
@@ -51,7 +54,7 @@ system_error::system_error(int err, char const* file, int line) noexcept
     , line_(line) {}
 
 void dump_exceptions() {
-#if !DWARFS_STATIC_BUILD && FOLLY_HAVE_ELF && FOLLY_HAVE_DWARF
+#ifdef DWARFS_USE_EXCEPTION_TRACER
   auto exceptions = ::folly::exception_tracer::getCurrentExceptions();
   for (auto& exc : exceptions) {
     std::cerr << exc << std::endl;