diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 60119bf..c570cdb 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -13,17 +13,20 @@ if(APPLE)
   set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -Wno-deprecated-register")
 endif()
 
-set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fPIC -g -std=c++0x")
+set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fPIC -std=c++0x")
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -Wall -Wextra -Werror -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-strict-aliasing")
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -O3 -mfpmath=sse -msse4.1")
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -ffast-math -funsafe-math-optimizations")
-#set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fno-trapping-math -ffinite-math-only -fvect-cost-model -mrecip")
-#set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -mavx") # on sandy bridge and later
+
 if(DEFINED ENV{CXX_FLAGS})
-  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} $ENV{CXX_FLAGS}") # for testing
+  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} $ENV{CXX_FLAGS}")
 endif()
 message("CXX_FLAGS =${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")
 
+set(CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX _dbg)
+set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -g -DDIST_DEBUG_LEVEL=3 -DDIST_THROW_ON_ERROR")
+set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -DNDEBUG=1")
+
 if(DEFINED EXTRA_INCLUDE_PATH)
   include_directories(${EXTRA_INCLUDE_PATH})
 endif()
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1521061..ce340b4 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -20,14 +20,12 @@ ifdef VIRTUAL_ENV
 	library_path=$(LIBRARY_PATH):$(VIRTUAL_ENV)/lib/
 	nose_env+=$(ld_library_path)=$($(ld_library_path)):$(VIRTUAL_ENV)/lib/
 else
-	cmake_args=-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=..
+	cmake_args=-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../..
 	library_path=$(LIBRARY_PATH):`pwd`/lib/
 	nose_env+=$(ld_library_path)=$($(ld_library_path)):`pwd`/lib/
 endif
-
-cy_deps=
-ifdef PYDISTRIBUTIONS_USE_LIB
-	cy_deps=install_cc
+ifdef CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
+	cmake_args=-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX)
 endif
 
 all: test
@@ -40,16 +38,23 @@ src/test_headers.cc: $(headers)
 	echo 'int main () { return 0; }' >> src/test_headers.cc
 
 configure_cc: src/test_headers.cc FORCE
-	mkdir -p build lib
-	cd build && cmake $(cmake_args) ..
+	mkdir -p build/debug build/release lib
+	cd build/debug \
+	  && cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug $(cmake_args) ../..
+	cd build/release \
+	  && cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo $(cmake_args) ../..
+
+debug_cc: configure_cc FORCE
+	cd build/debug && $(MAKE)
 
-build_cc: configure_cc FORCE
-	cd build && $(MAKE)
+release_cc: configure_cc FORCE
+	cd build/release && $(MAKE)
 
-install_cc: build_cc FORCE
-	cd build && $(MAKE) install
+install_cc: debug_cc release_cc FORCE
+	cd build/debug && $(MAKE) install
+	cd build/release && $(MAKE) install
 
-deps_cy: $(cy_deps) FORCE
+deps_cy: install_cc FORCE
 	pip install -r requirements.txt
 
 dev_cy: deps_cy FORCE
@@ -60,7 +65,7 @@ install_cy: deps_cy FORCE
 
 install: install_cc install_cy FORCE
 
-package: build_cc FORCE
+package: debug_cc release_cc FORCE
 	cd build && $(MAKE) package
 
 install_cc_examples: install_cc FORCE
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f5b871e..acf3c9a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ and now powers machine learning infrastructure at Salesforce.com.
 
 ## Installation
 
-distributions with pip:
+For python-only support (no C++) you can install with pip:
 
     pip install distributions
 
diff --git a/doc/installation.rst b/doc/installation.rst
index b63245f..15cb475 100644
--- a/doc/installation.rst
+++ b/doc/installation.rst
@@ -31,19 +31,21 @@ Install requirements::
 
     sudo apt-get install cmake libeigen3-dev
 
-Then::
+To install in ``./lib``::
 
-    mkdir build; cd build
-    cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/my/prefix ..
     make install
 
+Alternatively, set a custom install location::
+
+    CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/my/prefix make install
+
 
 Python wrapping libdistributions
 --------------------------------
 
 Follow instructions for C++ Standalone. Install numpy and scipy. Then::
 
-    PYDISTRIBUTIONS_USE_LIB=1 LIBRARY_PATH=/my/prefix/lib pip install distributions
+    LIBRARY_PATH=/my/prefix/lib pip install distributions
 
 .. warning::
 
@@ -77,12 +79,6 @@ Install cmake. Install numpy, scipy, cython, and nosetests so that
 they're available within a python virtualenv. Activate that
 virtualenv. Then::
 
-    PYDISTRIBUTIONS_USE_LIB=1 make test
-
-The top-level ``Makefile`` provides many targets useful for
-development.
-
-To use distributions in CMake targest, and to make the distributions unit
-tests run faster, set the environment variable ``DISTRIBUTIONS_PATH`` to your git cloned location, for example
+    make test
 
-    echo 'export DISTRIBUTIONS_PATH=/path/to/distributions' >> $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/postactivate
+The top-level ``Makefile`` provides many targets useful for development.
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 44a0cda..500f287 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -98,7 +98,6 @@
     ])
 
 
-use_libdistributions = 'PYDISTRIBUTIONS_USE_LIB' in os.environ
 use_protobuf = 'DISTRIBUTIONS_USE_PROTOBUF' in os.environ
 
 
@@ -111,23 +110,7 @@ def make_extension(name):
     if use_protobuf:
         libraries.append('protobuf')
     if name.startswith('lp'):
-        if use_libdistributions:
-            libraries = ['distributions_shared'] + libraries
-        else:
-            sources += [
-                'src/common.cc',
-                'src/special.cc',
-                'src/random.cc',
-                'src/vector_math.cc',
-            ]
-            if name == 'lp.clustering':
-                sources.append('src/clustering.cc')
-            elif name in ('lp.models.nich', 'lp.models._nich'):
-                sources.append('src/models/nich.cc')
-            elif name in ('lp.models.niw', 'lp.models._niw'):
-                sources.append('src/models/niw.cc')
-            elif name in ('lp.models.gp', 'lp.models._gp'):
-                sources.append('src/models/gp.cc')
+        libraries = ['distributions_shared_dbg'] + libraries
     return Extension(
         module,
         sources=sources,