diff --git a/configure b/configure
index edaa3dad5..c718e83b6 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -20,9 +20,3 @@ CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -Wall -Wundef -Wno-char-subscripts -Werror=implicit-function-dec
 : ${OPTIMIZE:=-Os -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -fno-strict-aliasing}
 
 # We accept LDFLAGS, but by default don't have anything in it
-if [ "$(uname)" == "Darwin" ]
-then
-  : ${LDOPTIMIZE:=-Wl,-dead_strip} ${STRIP:=strip}
-else
-  : ${LDOPTIMIZE:=-Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--as-needed} ${STRIP:=strip -s -R .note* -R .comment}
-fi
diff --git a/scripts/portability.sh b/scripts/portability.sh
index 3e86c36c7..1ee438702 100644
--- a/scripts/portability.sh
+++ b/scripts/portability.sh
@@ -13,6 +13,14 @@ then
   [ ! -z "$(command -v gsed 2>/dev/null)" ] && SED=gsed || SED=sed
 fi
 
+# Tell linker to do dead code elimination at function level
+if [ "$(uname)" == "Darwin" ]
+then
+  : ${LDOPTIMIZE:=-Wl,-dead_strip} ${STRIP:=strip}
+else
+  : ${LDOPTIMIZE:=-Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--as-needed} ${STRIP:=strip -s -R .note* -R .comment}
+fi
+
 # Address Sanitizer
 if [ ! -z "$ASAN" ]; then
   # Turn ASan on and disable most optimization to get more readable backtraces.