diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index ddab2165f..10077ffba 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ tor (0.2.0.27-rc-X) Xxperimental; urgency=low
   * And mention www.tp.o instead of the old tor.eff.org in the long
     description.
   * No longer ignore failure of make clean in the clean target.
+  * Support passing of parallel=<n> in build options.
 
- -- Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>  Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:52:58 +0200
+ -- Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>  Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:58:37 +0200
 
 tor (0.2.0.26-rc-1) experimental; urgency=critical
 
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 739d489f9..6a82de157 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ ifneq (,$(findstring notest,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
 	RUN_TEST = no
 endif
 
+# Support passing of parallel=<n> in build options
+ifneq (,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+	NUMJOBS = $(patsubst parallel=%,%,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+	MAKEFLAGS += -j$(NUMJOBS)
+endif
+
 CONF_OPTIONS =
 # build against libdmalloc4 - it better be installed
 ifneq (,$(findstring with-dmalloc,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))