diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 8f66b2bba..7dc2565c1 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -217,6 +217,8 @@ To run uutils against the GNU test suite locally, run the following commands:
 
 ```shell
 bash util/build-gnu.sh
+# Build uutils without release optimizations
+UU_MAKE_PROFILE=debug bash util/build-gnu.sh
 bash util/run-gnu-test.sh
 # To run a single test:
 bash util/run-gnu-test.sh tests/touch/not-owner.sh # for example