diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.h b/mlir/include/mlir/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.h
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.h
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.h
@@ -75,8 +75,9 @@
   llvm::SectionMemoryManager::MemoryMapper *sectionMemoryMapper = nullptr;
 
   /// If `enableObjectCache` is set, the JIT compiler will create one to store
-  /// the object generated for the given module.
-  bool enableObjectCache = true;
+  /// the object generated for the given module. The contents of the cache can
+  /// be dumped to a file via the `dumpToObjectfile` method.
+  bool enableObjectCache = false;
 
   /// If enable `enableGDBNotificationListener` is set, the JIT compiler will
   /// notify the llvm's global GDB notification listener.
diff --git a/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.cpp b/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/ExecutionEngine.cpp
@@ -97,6 +97,11 @@
 }
 
 void ExecutionEngine::dumpToObjectFile(StringRef filename) {
+  if (cache == nullptr) {
+    llvm::errs() << "cannot dump ExecutionEngine object code to file: "
+                    "object cache is disabled\n";
+    return;
+  }
   cache->dumpToObjectFile(filename);
 }
 
diff --git a/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/JitRunner.cpp b/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/JitRunner.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/JitRunner.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/ExecutionEngine/JitRunner.cpp
@@ -212,6 +212,7 @@
   engineOptions.transformer = config.transformer;
   engineOptions.jitCodeGenOptLevel = jitCodeGenOptLevel;
   engineOptions.sharedLibPaths = executionEngineLibs;
+  engineOptions.enableObjectCache = true;
   auto expectedEngine = mlir::ExecutionEngine::create(module, engineOptions);
   if (!expectedEngine)
     return expectedEngine.takeError();