diff --git a/src/buffer.hpp b/src/buffer.hpp
index eda59c5f6..2900bdc1b 100644
--- a/src/buffer.hpp
+++ b/src/buffer.hpp
@@ -140,11 +140,30 @@ static inline bool buf_eql_str(Buf *buf, const char *str) {
     return buf_eql_mem(buf, str, strlen(str));
 }
 
-static inline bool buf_starts_with_buf(Buf *buf, Buf *sub) {
-    if (buf_len(buf) < buf_len(sub)) {
+static inline bool buf_starts_with_mem(Buf *buf, const char *mem, int mem_len) {
+    if (buf_len(buf) < mem_len) {
         return false;
     }
-    return buf_eql_mem(sub, buf_ptr(buf), buf_len(sub));
+    return memcmp(buf_ptr(buf), mem, mem_len) == 0;
+}
+
+static inline bool buf_starts_with_buf(Buf *buf, Buf *sub) {
+    return buf_starts_with_mem(buf, buf_ptr(sub), buf_len(sub));
+}
+
+static inline bool buf_starts_with_str(Buf *buf, const char *str) {
+    return buf_starts_with_mem(buf, str, strlen(str));
+}
+
+static inline bool buf_ends_with_mem(Buf *buf, const char *mem, int mem_len) {
+    if (buf_len(buf) < mem_len) {
+        return false;
+    }
+    return memcmp(buf_ptr(buf) + buf_len(buf) - mem_len, mem, mem_len) == 0;
+}
+
+static inline bool buf_ends_with_str(Buf *buf, const char *str) {
+    return buf_ends_with_mem(buf, str, strlen(str));
 }
 
 bool buf_eql_buf(Buf *buf, Buf *other);
diff --git a/src/link.cpp b/src/link.cpp
index d58ecd0a1..c7c4b2bb6 100644
--- a/src/link.cpp
+++ b/src/link.cpp
@@ -238,7 +238,14 @@ static void construct_linker_job_linux(LinkJob *lj) {
 
     for (int i = 0; i < g->link_libs.length; i += 1) {
         Buf *link_lib = g->link_libs.at(i);
-        Buf *arg = buf_sprintf("-l%s", buf_ptr(link_lib));
+        Buf *arg;
+        if (buf_starts_with_str(link_lib, "/") || buf_ends_with_str(link_lib, ".a") ||
+            buf_ends_with_str(link_lib, ".so"))
+        {
+            arg = link_lib;
+        } else {
+            arg = buf_sprintf("-l%s", buf_ptr(link_lib));
+        }
         lj->args.append(buf_ptr(arg));
     }