diff --git a/gas/ChangeLog b/gas/ChangeLog
index c83800a2f51..c2595b48c3f 100644
--- a/gas/ChangeLog
+++ b/gas/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2020-07-30  Nick Clifton  <nickc@redhat.com>
+
+	* as.c (dwarf_level): Initialise to 4 in case this is not set on
+	the command line.
+
 2020-07-29  Maciej W. Rozycki  <macro@linux-mips.org>
 
 	* testsuite/gas/mips/global-local-symtab-sort-o32.d: New test.
diff --git a/gas/as.c b/gas/as.c
index 4c5881abd88..c2da78870ef 100644
--- a/gas/as.c
+++ b/gas/as.c
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ int verbose = 0;
 int flag_dwarf_cie_version = -1;
 
 /* The maximum level of DWARF DEBUG information we should manufacture.  */
-unsigned int dwarf_level = 0;
+unsigned int dwarf_level = 4;
 
 #if defined OBJ_ELF || defined OBJ_MAYBE_ELF
 int flag_use_elf_stt_common = DEFAULT_GENERATE_ELF_STT_COMMON;