diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 0ebde38..0510bad 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
     'phosphor-objmgr',
     'c', 'cpp',
     default_options: [
+        'buildtype=debugoptimized',
         'cpp_std=c++20',
         'warning_level=3',
         'werror=true',
@@ -15,6 +16,11 @@
 phosphor_dbus_interfaces = dependency('phosphor-dbus-interfaces')
 sdbusplus = dependency('sdbusplus')
 
+
+if get_option('buildtype').startswith('debug')
+    add_project_arguments('-DMAPPER_ENABLE_DEBUG', language : 'cpp')
+endif
+
 if get_option('tests').enabled()
     gtest = dependency('gtest', main: true, disabler: true, required: false)
     gmock = dependency('gmock', disabler: true, required: false)