diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index dccaffc38..18cef14eb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,16 @@ spdk_nvme_ns_get_extended_sector_size() was added.  This function includes
 the metadata size per sector (if any).  spdk_nvme_ns_get_sector_size() still
 returns only the data size per sector, not including metadata.
 
+### Build System
+
+New `configure` options, `--with-shared` and `--without-shared`
+[default], provide the capability to build, or not, SPDK shared libraries.
+This includes the single SPDK shared lib encompassing all of the SPDK
+static libs as well as individual SPDK shared libs corresponding to
+each of the SPDK static ones.  Although the production of the shared
+libs conforms with conventional version naming practices, such naming
+does not at this time confer any SPDK ABI compatibility claims.
+
 ## v18.07:
 
 ### bdev
diff --git a/CONFIG b/CONFIG
index c41b6890e..c3b30bcac 100644
--- a/CONFIG
+++ b/CONFIG
@@ -107,3 +107,6 @@ CONFIG_RAID?=n
 
 # Enable the dependencies for building the crypto vbdev
 CONFIG_CRYPTO?=n
+
+# Build spdk shared libraries in addition to the static ones.
+CONFIG_SHARED?=n
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 273f0119e..2bb661a83 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ S :=
 SPDK_ROOT_DIR := $(CURDIR)
 include $(SPDK_ROOT_DIR)/mk/spdk.common.mk
 
-DIRS-y += lib shared_lib examples app include
+DIRS-y += lib
+DIRS-$(CONFIG_SHARED) += shared_lib
+DIRS-y += examples app include
 DIRS-$(CONFIG_TESTS) += test
 
 .PHONY: all clean $(DIRS-y) config.h CONFIG.local mk/cc.mk cc_version cxx_version
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 8baa8e7fb..3dd02e379 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ function usage()
 	echo "                           No path required."
 	echo " rdma                      [disabled]"
 	echo "                           No path required."
+	echo " shared                    Required to build spdk shared libraries."
+	echo "                           No path required."
 	echo " iscsi-initiator           [disabled]"
 	echo "                           No path required."
 	echo " raid                      [disabled]"
@@ -158,6 +160,12 @@ for i in "$@"; do
 		--without-rdma)
 			CONFIG_RDMA=n
 			;;
+		--with-shared)
+			CONFIG_SHARED=y
+			;;
+		--without-shared)
+			CONFIG_SHARED=n
+			;;
 		--with-iscsi-initiator)
 			CONFIG_ISCSI_INITIATOR=y
 			;;
@@ -291,7 +299,7 @@ if [ "$CONFIG_ASAN" = "y" -a "$CONFIG_TSAN" = "y" ]; then
 	exit 1
 fi
 
-if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "FreeBSD"* ]]; then
+if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "freebsd"* ]]; then
 	# FreeBSD doesn't support all configurations
 	if [[ "$CONFIG_COVERAGE" == "y" ]]; then
 		echo "ERROR: CONFIG_COVERAGE not available on FreeBSD"
@@ -369,6 +377,9 @@ fi
 if [ -n "$CONFIG_RDMA" ]; then
 	echo "CONFIG_RDMA?=$CONFIG_RDMA" >> CONFIG.local
 fi
+if [ -n "$CONFIG_SHARED" ]; then
+	echo "CONFIG_SHARED?=$CONFIG_SHARED" >> CONFIG.local
+fi
 if [ -n "$CONFIG_ISCSI_INITIATOR" ]; then
 	echo "CONFIG_ISCSI_INITIATOR?=$CONFIG_ISCSI_INITIATOR" >> CONFIG.local
 fi
@@ -415,7 +426,7 @@ echo $python_command > PYTHON_COMMAND
 $python_command scripts/genconfig.py > config.h
 
 echo "done."
-if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "FreeBSD"* ]]; then
+if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "freebsd"* ]]; then
 	echo "Type 'gmake' to build."
 else
 	echo "Type 'make' to build."