diff --git a/.azure-pipelines.yml b/.azure-pipelines.yml
index 64c1c171..398b1608 100644
--- a/.azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/.azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ stages:
 
         - bash: |
             export CFLAGS="-ggdb3 -O2"
-            ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --enable-warnaserror
+            ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --enable-warnaserror --enable-unittests
             make -j4
             sudo make install
           displayName: 'Build and Install libgdiplus'
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ stages:
         - bash: |
             export CFLAGS="-m64 -arch x86_64 -mmacosx-version-min=10.9"
             export LDFLAGS="-m64 -arch x86_64"
-            ./autogen.sh --prefix=/tmp/libgdiplus-dev --enable-warnaserror --without-x11 --host=x86_64-apple-darwin13.0.0 --build=x86_64-apple-darwin13.0.0
+            ./autogen.sh --prefix=/tmp/libgdiplus-dev --enable-warnaserror --enable-unittests --without-x11 --host=x86_64-apple-darwin13.0.0 --build=x86_64-apple-darwin13.0.0
             make -j4
             make install
           displayName: 'Build and Install libgdiplus'
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 9ac01e10..d581805c 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 
-SUBDIRS = src tests
-DIST_SUBDIRS = src tests
+if BUILD_UNIT_TESTS
+SUBDIRS_TESTS = tests
+endif
+
+SUBDIRS = src $(SUBDIRS_TESTS)
+DIST_SUBDIRS = src $(SUBDIRS_TESTS)
 
 pkgconfigdir = $(libdir)/pkgconfig
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 68f1852b..eec847ca 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ AC_ARG_WITH(pango, [  --with-pango            use Pango to measure and draw text
 
 GDIPLUS_CFLAGS="$GDIPLUS_CFLAGS -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-sign-compare -std=gnu11"
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(unittests, AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-unittests],[Enable building unit tests.]),[unittests=yes],[unittests=no])
+
+AM_CONDITIONAL([BUILD_UNIT_TESTS], [test x$unittests = xyes])
+
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(warnaserror, AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-warnaserror],[Enable treating warnings as errors.]),[warnaserror=yes],[warnaserror=no])
 
 if test $warnaserror = "yes"; then