diff --git a/CMake/AbseilHelpers.cmake b/CMake/AbseilHelpers.cmake
index 3fb86375..e3194bcf 100644
--- a/CMake/AbseilHelpers.cmake
+++ b/CMake/AbseilHelpers.cmake
@@ -97,8 +97,9 @@ function(absl_cc_library)
     ${ARGN}
   )
 
-  if(NOT ABSL_CC_LIB_PUBLIC AND ABSL_CC_LIB_TESTONLY AND
-      NOT (BUILD_TESTING AND ABSL_BUILD_TESTING))
+  if(ABSL_CC_LIB_TESTONLY AND
+      NOT ((BUILD_TESTING AND ABSL_BUILD_TESTING) OR
+        (ABSL_BUILD_TEST_HELPERS AND ABSL_CC_LIB_PUBLIC)))
     return()
   endif()
 
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 995d90e5..706af68a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -114,6 +114,10 @@ include(CMakeDependentOption)
 option(ABSL_BUILD_TESTING
   "If ON, Abseil will build all of Abseil's own tests." OFF)
 
+option(ABSL_BUILD_TEST_HELPERS
+  "If ON, Abseil will build libraries that you can use to write tests against Abseil code. This option requires that Abseil is configured to use GoogleTest."
+  OFF)
+
 option(ABSL_USE_EXTERNAL_GOOGLETEST
   "If ON, Abseil will assume that the targets for GoogleTest are already provided by the including project. This makes sense when Abseil is used with add_subdirectory." OFF)
 
@@ -133,7 +137,7 @@ set(ABSL_LOCAL_GOOGLETEST_DIR "/usr/src/googletest" CACHE PATH
   "If ABSL_USE_GOOGLETEST_HEAD is OFF and ABSL_GOOGLETEST_URL is not set, specifies the directory of a local GoogleTest checkout."
   )
 
-if(BUILD_TESTING AND ABSL_BUILD_TESTING)
+if((BUILD_TESTING AND ABSL_BUILD_TESTING) OR ABSL_BUILD_TEST_HELPERS)
   ## check targets
   if (ABSL_USE_EXTERNAL_GOOGLETEST)
     if (ABSL_FIND_GOOGLETEST)
diff --git a/ci/cmake_install_test.sh b/ci/cmake_install_test.sh
index 97ed8478..ab3b86f0 100755
--- a/ci/cmake_install_test.sh
+++ b/ci/cmake_install_test.sh
@@ -29,6 +29,18 @@ source "${ABSEIL_ROOT}/ci/cmake_common.sh"
 source "${ABSEIL_ROOT}/ci/linux_docker_containers.sh"
 readonly DOCKER_CONTAINER=${LINUX_GCC_LATEST_CONTAINER}
 
+# Verify that everything works with the standard "cmake && make && make install"
+# without building tests or requiring GoogleTest.
+time docker run \
+    --mount type=bind,source="${ABSEIL_ROOT}",target=/abseil-cpp-ro,readonly \
+    --tmpfs=/buildfs:exec \
+    --workdir=/buildfs \
+    --rm \
+    ${DOCKER_EXTRA_ARGS:-} \
+    ${DOCKER_CONTAINER} \
+    /bin/bash -c "cmake /abseil-cpp-ro && make -j$(nproc) && make install"
+
+# Verify that a more complicated project works.
 for link_type in ${LINK_TYPE}; do
   time docker run \
     --mount type=bind,source="${ABSEIL_ROOT}",target=/abseil-cpp-ro,readonly \