diff --git a/mlir/CMakeLists.txt b/mlir/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/mlir/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/mlir/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@
 set(MLIR_CUDA_RUNNER_ENABLED 0 CACHE BOOL "Enable building the mlir CUDA runner")
 set(MLIR_VULKAN_RUNNER_ENABLED 0 CACHE BOOL "Enable building the mlir Vulkan runner")
 
+option(MLIR_INCLUDE_TESTS
+       "Generate build targets for the MLIR unit tests."
+       ${LLVM_INCLUDE_TESTS})
+
 include_directories( "include")
 include_directories( ${MLIR_INCLUDE_DIR})
 
@@ -44,8 +48,11 @@
 
 add_subdirectory(include/mlir)
 add_subdirectory(lib)
-add_subdirectory(unittests)
-add_subdirectory(test)
+if (MLIR_INCLUDE_TESTS)
+  add_definitions(-DMLIR_INCLUDE_TESTS)
+  add_subdirectory(unittests)
+  add_subdirectory(test)
+endif()
 # Tools needs to come late to ensure that MLIR_ALL_LIBS is populated.
 # Generally things after this point may depend on MLIR_ALL_LIBS or libMLIR.so.
 add_subdirectory(tools)
diff --git a/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/CMakeLists.txt b/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -10,24 +10,30 @@
   AsmParser
   )
 
+if(MLIR_INCLUDE_TESTS)
+  set(test_libs
+    MLIRAffineTransformsTestPasses
+    MLIRSPIRVTestPasses
+    MLIRTestDialect
+    MLIRTestIR
+    MLIRTestPass
+    MLIRTestTransforms
+    )
+endif()
+
 set(LIBS
   ${dialect_libs}
   ${conversion_libs}
+  ${test_libs}
   MLIRLoopAnalysis
-  MLIRAffineTransformsTestPasses
   MLIRAnalysis
   MLIRDialect
   MLIREDSC
   MLIROptLib
   MLIRParser
   MLIRPass
-  MLIRSPIRVTestPasses
   MLIRTransforms
   MLIRTransformUtils
-  MLIRTestDialect
-  MLIRTestIR
-  MLIRTestPass
-  MLIRTestTransforms
   MLIRSupport
   MLIRIR
   )
diff --git a/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/mlir-opt.cpp b/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/mlir-opt.cpp
--- a/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/mlir-opt.cpp
+++ b/mlir/tools/mlir-opt/mlir-opt.cpp
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@
     "allow-unregistered-dialect",
     cl::desc("Allow operation with no registered dialects"), cl::init(false));
 
+#ifdef MLIR_INCLUDE_TESTS
 void registerTestPasses() {
   registerConvertToTargetEnvPass();
   registerInliner();
@@ -131,6 +132,7 @@
   registerTestVectorToSCFPass();
   registerVectorizerTestPass();
 }
+#endif
 
 static cl::opt<bool>
     showDialects("show-dialects",
@@ -140,7 +142,9 @@
 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
   registerAllDialects();
   registerAllPasses();
+#ifdef MLIR_INCLUDE_TESTS
   registerTestPasses();
+#endif
   InitLLVM y(argc, argv);
 
   // Register any command line options.