diff --git a/lib/common/debug.c b/lib/common/debug.c
index ebf7bfccfa6..9d0b7d229c1 100644
--- a/lib/common/debug.c
+++ b/lib/common/debug.c
@@ -21,4 +21,10 @@
 
 #include "debug.h"
 
+#if !defined(ZSTD_LINUX_KERNEL) || (DEBUGLEVEL>=2)
+/* We only use this when DEBUGLEVEL>=2, but we get -Werror=pedantic errors if a
+ * translation unit is empty. So remove this from Linux kernel builds, but
+ * otherwise just leave it in.
+ */
 int g_debuglevel = DEBUGLEVEL;
+#endif