diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 9c6bdf91b1..aa07ed8e9b 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -760,20 +760,17 @@ conf.set_quoted('GETTEXT_PACKAGE', meson.project_name())
 substs.set('SUSHELL', get_option('debug-shell'))
 substs.set('DEBUGTTY', get_option('debug-tty'))
 
-debug = get_option('debug')
 enable_debug_hashmap = false
 enable_debug_mmap_cache = false
-if debug != ''
-        foreach name : debug.split(',')
-                if name == 'hashmap'
-                        enable_debug_hashmap = true
-                elif name == 'mmap-cache'
-                        enable_debug_mmap_cache = true
-                else
-                        message('unknown debug option "@0@", ignoring'.format(name))
-                endif
-        endforeach
-endif
+foreach name : get_option('debug')
+        if name == 'hashmap'
+                enable_debug_hashmap = true
+        elif name == 'mmap-cache'
+                enable_debug_mmap_cache = true
+        else
+                message('unknown debug option "@0@", ignoring'.format(name))
+        endif
+endforeach
 conf.set10('ENABLE_DEBUG_HASHMAP', enable_debug_hashmap)
 conf.set10('ENABLE_DEBUG_MMAP_CACHE', enable_debug_mmap_cache)
 
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 61d3381d17..3b718311a3 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ option('debug-shell', type : 'string', value : '/bin/sh',
        description : 'path to debug shell binary')
 option('debug-tty', type : 'string', value : '/dev/tty9',
        description : 'specify the tty device for debug shell')
-option('debug', type : 'string',
-       description : 'enable extra debugging (hashmap,mmap-cache)')
+option('debug', type : 'array', choices : ['hashmap', 'mmap-cache'], value : [],
+       description : 'enable extra debugging')
 option('memory-accounting-default', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'enable MemoryAccounting= by default')