diff --git a/argv.go b/argv.go
index f01e98b..ea1ec8d 100644
--- a/argv.go
+++ b/argv.go
@@ -15,11 +15,12 @@ import (
 var argv args
 
 type args struct {
-	NoGui   bool     `arg:"--no-gui"      help:"don't open the gui, just make the .deb"`
-	Ldflags []string `arg:"--ldflags"     help:"flags to pass to go build"`
-	Repo    string   `arg:"--repo"        help:"go get path to the repo"`
-	PkgDir  string   `arg:"--pkg-dir"     help:"set default directory (~/incoming/)"`
-	Release bool     `arg:"--release"     help:"build a release from the last git tag"`
+	NoGui     bool     `arg:"--no-gui"         help:"don't open the gui, just make the .deb"`
+	Ldflags   []string `arg:"--ldflags"        help:"flags to pass to go build"`
+	Repo      string   `arg:"--repo"           help:"go get path to the repo"`
+	PkgDir    string   `arg:"--pkg-dir"        help:"set default directory (~/incoming/)"`
+	Release   bool     `arg:"--release"        help:"build a release from the last git tag"`
+	KeepFiles bool     `arg:"--keep-files"     help:"keep the build files/"`
 }
 
 func init() {
diff --git a/buildPackage.go b/buildPackage.go
index 95c76bb..bf201c3 100644
--- a/buildPackage.go
+++ b/buildPackage.go
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ func (c *controlBox) buildPackage() (bool, error) {
 
 		// add any flags from the command line
 		for _, flag := range argv.Ldflags {
-			cmd = append(cmd, "-ldflags", "-X " + flag)
+			cmd = append(cmd, "-ldflags", "-X "+flag)
 		}
 
 		if shell.Run(cmd) {
@@ -174,9 +174,13 @@ func (c *controlBox) buildPackage() (bool, error) {
 
 	// cleanup files
 	if shell.Exists("files") {
-		if shell.Run([]string{"rm", "-rf", "files"}) {
-			log.Warn("rm failed")
-			return false, errors.New("rm files/")
+		if argv.KeepFiles {
+			log.Info("keeping the build files/")
+		} else {
+			if shell.Run([]string{"rm", "-rf", "files"}) {
+				log.Warn("rm failed")
+				return false, errors.New("rm files/")
+			}
 		}
 	}
 	return true, nil