diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 23a7b5a2..4d0c60e6 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ ostree (2019.6-1) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
 
   * New upstream release
     - d/libostree-1-1.symbols: Update
+  * d/tests/build: Use correct compiler for proposed autopkgtest
+    cross-architecture testing support
 
  -- Simon McVittie <smcv@debian.org>  Sat, 14 Dec 2019 10:52:40 +0000
 
diff --git a/debian/tests/build b/debian/tests/build
index f10f8cf4..1a40303e 100755
--- a/debian/tests/build
+++ b/debian/tests/build
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ set -x
 
 cd "$AUTOPKGTEST_TMP"
 
+if [ -n "${DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE:-}" ]; then
+    CROSS_COMPILE="$DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE-"
+else
+    CROSS_COMPILE=
+fi
+
 cat > trivial.c <<EOF
 #include <ostree.h>
 
@@ -16,7 +22,9 @@ int main (void)
 }
 EOF
 
-gcc -o trivial trivial.c $(pkg-config --cflags --libs ostree-1 gobject-2.0)
+# Deliberately word-splitting, that's how pkg-config works:
+# shellcheck disable=SC2046
+"${CROSS_COMPILE}gcc" -o trivial trivial.c $("${CROSS_COMPILE}pkg-config" --cflags --libs ostree-1 gobject-2.0)
 test -x trivial
 ./trivial
-echo "ok 3 run it"
+echo "OK"