diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 1e6a2ac..97835a1 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -48,6 +48,16 @@
             COMPILE_DEFINITIONS "${TARGET_I386_CFLAGS}"
             CMAKE_FLAGS "-DCMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS:STRING=${TARGET_I386_CFLAGS}")
 
+# Because compiler-rt spends a lot of time setting up custom compile flags,
+# define a handy helper function for it. The compile flags setting in CMake
+# has serious issues that make its syntax challenging at best.
+function(set_target_compile_flags target)
+  foreach(arg ${ARGN})
+    set(argstring "${argstring} ${arg}")
+  endforeach()
+  set_property(TARGET ${target} PROPERTY COMPILE_FLAGS "${argstring}")
+endfunction()
+
 add_subdirectory(lib)
 
 if(LLVM_INCLUDE_TESTS)