diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 8da7b09..b3a044f 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 project('espeakup', 'c',
-  version : '0.81',
+  default_options : ['buildtype=debugoptimized', 'c_std=gnu11', 'warning_level=3'],
   license : 'GPL-3.0-or-later',
-  default_options : ['buildtype=debugoptimized', 'c_std=gnu11', 'warning_level=3'])
+  version : '0.81',
+  meson_version : '>=0.47.0')
 
 cc = meson.get_compiler('c')
 thread_dep = dependency('threads')
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..45e3a33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+option('systemd', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
+       description :'enable systemd support')
diff --git a/services/meson.build b/services/meson.build
index 14bee50..0be40f1 100644
--- a/services/meson.build
+++ b/services/meson.build
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-systemd = dependency('systemd', required: false)
+systemd = dependency('systemd', required: get_option('systemd'))
 if systemd.found()
     subdir('systemd')
 endif