diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 0377808e5..b42333713 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -194,7 +194,10 @@ endif WITH_PYLINT
 if WITH_JSLINT
 JSLINT_TARGET = jslint
 endif WITH_JSLINT
-lint: acilint apilint $(POLINT_TARGET) $(PYLINT_TARGET) $(JSLINT_TARGET) rpmlint yamllint
+if WITH_RPMLINT
+RPMLINT_TARGET = rpmlint
+endif  # WITH_RPMLINT
+lint: acilint apilint $(POLINT_TARGET) $(PYLINT_TARGET) $(JSLINT_TARGET) $(RPMLINT_TARGET) yamllint
 
 .PHONY: devcheck
 devcheck: all
@@ -210,12 +213,12 @@ endif
 	@ # just tests, aci, api and pylint on Python 3
 	PATH=$(abspath ipatests):$$PATH PYTHONPATH=$(abspath $(top_srcdir)) \
 	    $(PYTHON) ipatests/ipa-run-tests --ipaclient-unittests
-	$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) acilint apilint polint pylint jslint rpmlint yamllint check
+	$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) acilint apilint polint pylint jslint $(RPMLINT_TARGET) yamllint check
 	@echo "All tests passed."
 
 .PHONY: fastcheck fasttest fastlint
 fastcheck:
-	@$(MAKE) -j1 $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) fastlint rpmlint yamllint fasttest apilint acilint
+	@$(MAKE) -j1 $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) fastlint $(RPMLINT_TARGET) yamllint fasttest apilint acilint
 
 fasttest: $(GENERATED_PYTHON_FILES) ipasetup.py
 	@ # --ignore doubles speed of total test run compared to pytest.skip()
@@ -297,8 +300,10 @@ polint:
 	    validate-src-strings validate-po test-gettext
 
 .PHONY: rpmlint
+if WITH_RPMLINT
 rpmlint: freeipa.spec
-	rpmlint ./$<
+	@RPMLINT@ ./$<
+endif  # WITH_RPMLINT
 
 # Try to load yml/yaml files via safe_load, which recognizes only standard
 # YAML tags and cannot construct an arbitrary Python object.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 640fbb5e8..39f00f92c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -559,6 +559,23 @@ AS_CASE([$JSLINT],
 AC_SUBST([JSLINT])
 AM_CONDITIONAL([WITH_JSLINT], [test "x${JSLINT}" != "xno"])
 
+
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(
+    [rpmlint],
+    [AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-rpmlint], [Enable rpmlint for the rpm spec])],
+    [case "${enableval}" in
+         yes) ENABLE_RPMLINT=yes ;;
+          no) ENABLE_RPMLINT=no ;;
+           *) AC_MSG_ERROR([bad value ${enableval} for --enable-rpmlint]) ;;
+     esac],
+    [ENABLE_RPMLINT=no])
+AS_IF([test "x$ENABLE_RPMLINT" = "xyes"],
+      [AC_PATH_PROG([RPMLINT], [rpmlint])
+       AS_IF([test "x$RPMLINT" = "x"],
+             [AC_MSG_ERROR([Could not find rpmlint])])],
+)
+AM_CONDITIONAL([WITH_RPMLINT], [test "x$ENABLE_RPMLINT" = "xyes"])
+
 AM_CONDITIONAL([HAVE_UNSHARE],
     [test "x${ac_cv_func_unshare}" = "xyes" -a "x${ac_cv_func_chroot}" = "xyes"])
 
@@ -672,6 +689,7 @@ echo "
         Python:                   ${PYTHON} (${PYTHON_VERSION})
         pylint:                   ${PYLINT}
         jslint:                   ${JSLINT}
+        rpmlint:                  ${ENABLE_RPMLINT}
         LDAP libs:                ${LDAP_LIBS}
         OpenSSL crypto libs:      ${CRYPTO_LIBS}
         KRB5 libs:                ${KRB5_LIBS}