diff --git a/v2/tools/gcc.jam b/v2/tools/gcc.jam
index 52b03c37e..167da17a3 100644
--- a/v2/tools/gcc.jam
+++ b/v2/tools/gcc.jam
@@ -381,7 +381,9 @@ toolset.flags gcc.compile OPTIONS <warnings-as-errors>on : -Werror ;
 
 toolset.flags gcc.compile OPTIONS <debug-symbols>on : -g ;
 toolset.flags gcc.compile OPTIONS <profiling>on : -pg ;
-toolset.flags gcc.compile OPTIONS <rtti>off : -fno-rtti ;
+
+toolset.flags gcc.compile.c++ OPTIONS <rtti>off : -fno-rtti ;
+toolset.flags gcc.compile.c++ OPTIONS <exception-handling>off : -fno-exceptions ;
 
 rule setup-fpic ( targets * : sources * : properties * )
 {
diff --git a/v2/tools/gcc.py b/v2/tools/gcc.py
index b0aba1d29..70dd9ea72 100644
--- a/v2/tools/gcc.py
+++ b/v2/tools/gcc.py
@@ -282,7 +282,9 @@ flags('gcc.compile', 'OPTIONS', ['<warnings-as-errors>on'], ['-Werror'])
 
 flags('gcc.compile', 'OPTIONS', ['<debug-symbols>on'], ['-g'])
 flags('gcc.compile', 'OPTIONS', ['<profiling>on'], ['-pg'])
-flags('gcc.compile', 'OPTIONS', ['<rtti>off'], ['-fno-rtti'])
+
+flags('gcc.compile.c++', 'OPTIONS', ['<rtti>off'], ['-fno-rtti'])
+flags('gcc.compile.c++', 'OPTIONS', ['<exception-handling>off'], ['-fno-exceptions'])
 
 # On cygwin and mingw, gcc generates position independent code by default, and
 # warns if -fPIC is specified. This might not be the right way of checking if