diff --git a/package/utils/mdadm/Makefile b/package/utils/mdadm/Makefile
index af16048136..6c4145ad6d 100644
--- a/package/utils/mdadm/Makefile
+++ b/package/utils/mdadm/Makefile
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ define Package/mdadm/description
  A tool for managing Linux Software RAID arrays.
 endef
 
+TARGET_CFLAGS += -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections
+TARGET_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--gc-sections
+
 define Build/Compile
 	$(MAKE) -C $(PKG_BUILD_DIR) \
 		CC="$(TARGET_CC)" \