diff --git a/pybind11/setup_helpers.py b/pybind11/setup_helpers.py
index 4ff1a0cb37..d6d84f672a 100644
--- a/pybind11/setup_helpers.py
+++ b/pybind11/setup_helpers.py
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 import contextlib
 import os
 import platform
+import shlex
 import shutil
 import sys
 import sysconfig
@@ -143,7 +144,12 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         if WIN:
             cflags += ["/EHsc", "/bigobj"]
         else:
-            cflags += ["-fvisibility=hidden", "-g0"]
+            cflags += ["-fvisibility=hidden"]
+            env_cflags = os.environ.get("CFLAGS", "")
+            env_cppflags = os.environ.get("CPPFLAGS", "")
+            c_cpp_flags = shlex.split(env_cflags) + shlex.split(env_cppflags)
+            if not any(opt.startswith("-g") for opt in c_cpp_flags):
+                cflags += ["-g0"]
             if MACOS:
                 cflags += ["-stdlib=libc++"]
                 ldflags += ["-stdlib=libc++"]
diff --git a/tests/extra_setuptools/test_setuphelper.py b/tests/extra_setuptools/test_setuphelper.py
index c24f50af8a..788f368b14 100644
--- a/tests/extra_setuptools/test_setuphelper.py
+++ b/tests/extra_setuptools/test_setuphelper.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 DIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 MAIN_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(DIR))
+WIN = sys.platform.startswith("win32") or sys.platform.startswith("cygwin")
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("parallel", [False, True])
@@ -71,13 +72,20 @@ def test_simple_setup_py(monkeypatch, tmpdir, parallel, std):
         encoding="ascii",
     )
 
-    subprocess.check_call(
+    out = subprocess.check_output(
         [sys.executable, "setup.py", "build_ext", "--inplace"],
-        stdout=sys.stdout,
-        stderr=sys.stderr,
     )
+    if not WIN:
+        assert b"-g0" in out
+    out = subprocess.check_output(
+        [sys.executable, "setup.py", "build_ext", "--inplace", "--force"],
+        env=dict(os.environ, CFLAGS="-g"),
+    )
+    if not WIN:
+        assert b"-g0" not in out
 
     # Debug helper printout, normally hidden
+    print(out)
     for item in tmpdir.listdir():
         print(item.basename)