diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 6d1607d..634d372 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "rlua"
-version = "0.8.0"
+version = "0.8.1"
 authors = ["kyren <catherine@chucklefish.org>"]
 description = "High level bindings to Lua 5.3"
 repository = "https://github.com/chucklefish/rlua"
@@ -9,8 +9,17 @@ readme = "README.md"
 keywords = ["lua"]
 license = "MIT"
 
+[features]
+default = ["builtin-lua"]
+# Builds the correct version of Lua 5.3 inside the crate. If you want to link a
+# specialized version of lua into your binary, you can disable this feature to
+# do that, but care must be taken.  `rlua` expects the linked lua to define
+# LUA_INTEGER as long long, and LUA_NUMBER as double, and may make other
+# assumptions about how lua is built.
+builtin-lua = ["gcc"]
+
 [build-dependencies]
-gcc = "0.3"
+gcc = { version = "0.3", optional = true }
 
 [dependencies]
 hlist-macro = "0.1"
diff --git a/build.rs b/build.rs
index fe47a9d..a17e451 100644
--- a/build.rs
+++ b/build.rs
@@ -3,60 +3,63 @@ extern crate gcc;
 use std::env;
 
 fn main() {
-    let mut config = gcc::Config::new();
+    #[cfg(feature = "builtin-lua")]
+    {
+        let mut config = gcc::Config::new();
 
-    let target_os = env::var("CARGO_CFG_TARGET_OS");
-    let target_family = env::var("CARGO_CFG_TARGET_FAMILY");
+        let target_os = env::var("CARGO_CFG_TARGET_OS");
+        let target_family = env::var("CARGO_CFG_TARGET_FAMILY");
 
-    if target_os == Ok("linux".to_string()) {
-        config.define("LUA_USE_LINUX", None);
-    } else if target_os == Ok("macos".to_string()) {
-        config.define("LUA_USE_MACOSX", None);
-    } else if target_family == Ok("unix".to_string()) {
-        config.define("LUA_USE_POSIX", None);
-    } else if target_family == Ok("windows".to_string()) {
-        config.define("LUA_USE_WINDOWS", None);
+        if target_os == Ok("linux".to_string()) {
+            config.define("LUA_USE_LINUX", None);
+        } else if target_os == Ok("macos".to_string()) {
+            config.define("LUA_USE_MACOSX", None);
+        } else if target_family == Ok("unix".to_string()) {
+            config.define("LUA_USE_POSIX", None);
+        } else if target_family == Ok("windows".to_string()) {
+            config.define("LUA_USE_WINDOWS", None);
+        }
+
+        // Enables lua api checking, which has a slight performance penalty.  We
+        // could allow disabling this via cfg one day when there is much more
+        // confidence in the soundness of the API.
+        config.define("LUA_USE_APICHECK", None);
+
+        config
+            .include("lua")
+            .file("lua/lapi.c")
+            .file("lua/lauxlib.c")
+            .file("lua/lbaselib.c")
+            .file("lua/lbitlib.c")
+            .file("lua/lcode.c")
+            .file("lua/lcorolib.c")
+            .file("lua/lctype.c")
+            .file("lua/ldblib.c")
+            .file("lua/ldebug.c")
+            .file("lua/ldo.c")
+            .file("lua/ldump.c")
+            .file("lua/lfunc.c")
+            .file("lua/lgc.c")
+            .file("lua/linit.c")
+            .file("lua/liolib.c")
+            .file("lua/llex.c")
+            .file("lua/lmathlib.c")
+            .file("lua/lmem.c")
+            .file("lua/loadlib.c")
+            .file("lua/lobject.c")
+            .file("lua/lopcodes.c")
+            .file("lua/loslib.c")
+            .file("lua/lparser.c")
+            .file("lua/lstate.c")
+            .file("lua/lstring.c")
+            .file("lua/lstrlib.c")
+            .file("lua/ltable.c")
+            .file("lua/ltablib.c")
+            .file("lua/ltm.c")
+            .file("lua/lundump.c")
+            .file("lua/lutf8lib.c")
+            .file("lua/lvm.c")
+            .file("lua/lzio.c")
+            .compile("liblua.a");
     }
-
-    // Enables lua api checking, which has a slight performance penalty.  We
-    // could allow disabling this via cfg one day when there is much more
-    // confidence in the soundness of the API.
-    config.define("LUA_USE_APICHECK", None);
-
-    config
-        .include("lua")
-        .file("lua/lapi.c")
-        .file("lua/lauxlib.c")
-        .file("lua/lbaselib.c")
-        .file("lua/lbitlib.c")
-        .file("lua/lcode.c")
-        .file("lua/lcorolib.c")
-        .file("lua/lctype.c")
-        .file("lua/ldblib.c")
-        .file("lua/ldebug.c")
-        .file("lua/ldo.c")
-        .file("lua/ldump.c")
-        .file("lua/lfunc.c")
-        .file("lua/lgc.c")
-        .file("lua/linit.c")
-        .file("lua/liolib.c")
-        .file("lua/llex.c")
-        .file("lua/lmathlib.c")
-        .file("lua/lmem.c")
-        .file("lua/loadlib.c")
-        .file("lua/lobject.c")
-        .file("lua/lopcodes.c")
-        .file("lua/loslib.c")
-        .file("lua/lparser.c")
-        .file("lua/lstate.c")
-        .file("lua/lstring.c")
-        .file("lua/lstrlib.c")
-        .file("lua/ltable.c")
-        .file("lua/ltablib.c")
-        .file("lua/ltm.c")
-        .file("lua/lundump.c")
-        .file("lua/lutf8lib.c")
-        .file("lua/lvm.c")
-        .file("lua/lzio.c")
-        .compile("liblua.a");
 }