diff --git a/bazel/envoy_build_system.bzl b/bazel/envoy_build_system.bzl
index 1fd57dfd3f825..ff04709d9ac0d 100644
--- a/bazel/envoy_build_system.bzl
+++ b/bazel/envoy_build_system.bzl
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ENVOY_COPTS = [
     "-fno-omit-frame-pointer",
+    "-fmax-errors=3",
     "-Wall",
     "-Wextra",
     "-Werror",
diff --git a/ci/build_setup.sh b/ci/build_setup.sh
index c479005472f34..b51cd96e3ed6c 100755
--- a/ci/build_setup.sh
+++ b/ci/build_setup.sh
@@ -13,15 +13,15 @@ export PPROF_PATH=/thirdparty_build/bin/pprof
 NUM_CPUS=`grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo`
 
 if [[ "$1" == "coverage" ]]; then
-  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS="-DENVOY_CODE_COVERAGE:BOOL=ON"
+  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS+=" -DENVOY_CODE_COVERAGE:BOOL=ON"
 elif [[ "$1" == "asan" ]]; then
-  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS="-DENVOY_SANITIZE:BOOL=ON -DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=OFF"
+  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS+=" -DENVOY_SANITIZE:BOOL=ON -DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=OFF"
 elif [[ "$1" == "debug" ]]; then
-  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS="-DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=ON"
+  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS+=" -DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=ON"
 elif [[ "$1" == "server_only" ]]; then
-  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS="-DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=OFF -DENVOY_STRIP:BOOL=ON"
+  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS+=" -DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=OFF -DENVOY_STRIP:BOOL=ON"
 else
-  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS="-DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=OFF"
+  EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS+=" -DENVOY_DEBUG:BOOL=OFF"
 fi
 
 mkdir -p build_"$1"
diff --git a/common.cmake b/common.cmake
index 2b69c4d92ff91..d17ae92eb8310 100644
--- a/common.cmake
+++ b/common.cmake
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -ggdb3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -Wall -Wextra -Werror -Wnon-virtual-dtor -Woverloaded-virtual -Wold-style-cast -std=c++0x")
 
+option(ENVOY_LIMIT_ERROR_LOG "limit the number of error log lines from compiler" OFF)
+if (ENVOY_LIMIT_ERROR_LOG)
+  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fmax-errors=3")
+endif()
+
 if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "GNU")
   if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION VERSION_LESS "4.9")
     message(FATAL_ERROR "gcc >= 4.9 required for regex support")