diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index 2ac96c29c..8b6e20f46 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ mod tests {
                 compressed: false,
                 git_treeless: false,
                 verbose: true,
-                verbose_cmd: true,
+                verbose_cmd: false,
                 clean_build: false,
                 clean_target: false,
                 write_filetree: false
diff --git a/src/cook/script.rs b/src/cook/script.rs
index 81384a5ab..89eb05214 100644
--- a/src/cook/script.rs
+++ b/src/cook/script.rs
@@ -460,12 +460,17 @@ strip_directory() {
   local strip_flags="${STRIP_ARGS:-}"
 
   find "$target_dir" -type f -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
-    if [ "$(od -An -t x1 -N 4 "$file" | tr -d ' \n')" = "7f454c46" ]; then
+    # check magic bytes for elf and ar before stripping
+    local magic_bytes="$(od -An -t x1 -N 4 "$file" | tr -d ' \n')"
+    if [[ "$magic_bytes" = "7f454c46" || "$magic_bytes" = "213c6172" ]]; then
       "${STRIP}" ${STRIP_ARGS} "$file"
     fi
-
   done
 }
+if [ -z "${COOKBOOK_NOSTRIP}" ]; then
+    [ -z "${COOKBOOK_VERBOSE}" ] || echo "DEBUG: stripping binaries and libraries"
+fi
+
 # Strip binaries
 for dir in "${COOKBOOK_STAGE}/bin" "${COOKBOOK_STAGE}/usr/bin" "${COOKBOOK_STAGE}/libexec" "${COOKBOOK_STAGE}/usr/libexec"
 do