diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index ba01e7421e..6ec7a24e1a 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ set up install paths (via config.mak.autogen), so you can write instead
 If you're willing to trade off (much) longer build time for a later
 faster git you can also do a profile feedback build with
 
-	$ make prefix=/usr PROFILE=BUILD all
+	$ make prefix=/usr profile
 	# make prefix=/usr PROFILE=BUILD install
 
 This will run the complete test suite as training workload and then
@@ -36,10 +36,20 @@ rebuild git with the generated profile feedback. This results in a git
 which is a few percent faster on CPU intensive workloads.  This
 may be a good tradeoff for distribution packagers.
 
+Alternatively you can run profile feedback only with the git benchmark
+suite. This runs significantly faster than the full test suite, but
+has less coverage:
+
+	$ make prefix=/usr profile-fast
+	# make prefix=/usr PROFILE=BUILD install
+
 Or if you just want to install a profile-optimized version of git into
 your home directory, you could run:
 
-	$ make PROFILE=BUILD install
+	$ make profile-install
+
+or
+	$ make profile-fast-install
 
 As a caveat: a profile-optimized build takes a *lot* longer since the
 git tree must be built twice, and in order for the profiling
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 840057cba7..a49acb5ec6 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1555,13 +1555,13 @@ endif
 PROFILE_DIR := $(CURDIR)
 
 ifeq ("$(PROFILE)","GEN")
-	CFLAGS += -fprofile-generate=$(PROFILE_DIR) -DNO_NORETURN=1
+	BASIC_CFLAGS += -fprofile-generate=$(PROFILE_DIR) -DNO_NORETURN=1
 	EXTLIBS += -lgcov
 	export CCACHE_DISABLE = t
 	V = 1
 else
 ifneq ("$(PROFILE)","")
-	CFLAGS += -fprofile-use=$(PROFILE_DIR) -fprofile-correction -DNO_NORETURN=1
+	BASIC_CFLAGS += -fprofile-use=$(PROFILE_DIR) -fprofile-correction -DNO_NORETURN=1
 	export CCACHE_DISABLE = t
 	V = 1
 endif
@@ -1646,12 +1646,20 @@ SHELL = $(SHELL_PATH)
 all:: shell_compatibility_test
 
 ifeq "$(PROFILE)" "BUILD"
-ifeq ($(filter all,$(MAKECMDGOALS)),all)
-all:: profile-clean
+all:: profile
+endif
+
+profile:: profile-clean
 	$(MAKE) PROFILE=GEN all
 	$(MAKE) PROFILE=GEN -j1 test
-endif
-endif
+	$(MAKE) PROFILE=GEN -j1 perf
+	$(MAKE) PROFILE=USE all
+
+profile-fast: profile-clean
+	$(MAKE) PROFILE=GEN all
+	$(MAKE) PROFILE=GEN -j1 perf
+	$(MAKE) PROFILE=USE all
+
 
 all:: $(ALL_PROGRAMS) $(SCRIPT_LIB) $(BUILT_INS) $(OTHER_PROGRAMS) GIT-BUILD-OPTIONS
 ifneq (,$X)
@@ -2338,6 +2346,12 @@ mergetools_instdir_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(mergetools_instdir))
 
 install_bindir_programs := $(patsubst %,%$X,$(BINDIR_PROGRAMS_NEED_X)) $(BINDIR_PROGRAMS_NO_X)
 
+profile-install: profile
+	$(MAKE) install
+
+profile-fast-install: profile-fast
+	$(MAKE) install
+
 install: all
 	$(INSTALL) -d -m 755 '$(DESTDIR_SQ)$(bindir_SQ)'
 	$(INSTALL) -d -m 755 '$(DESTDIR_SQ)$(gitexec_instdir_SQ)'
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index 0b53c9a4af..63d72db553 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -291,10 +291,12 @@ extern char *gitbasename(char *);
 #else
 #define NORETURN
 #define NORETURN_PTR
+#ifndef __GNUC__
 #ifndef __attribute__
 #define __attribute__(x)
 #endif
 #endif
+#endif
 
 /* The sentinel attribute is valid from gcc version 4.0 */
 #if defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ >= 4)