diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f7e2ed08b..f8df14007 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -165,7 +165,10 @@ if(CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNU)
         set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -Wlogical-op")
     endif()
     if (GCC_VERSION VERSION_GREATER 4.8 OR GCC_VERSION VERSION_EQUAL 4.8)
-        set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -Wshadow -Wformat-signedness")
+        set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -Wshadow")
+    endif()
+    if (GCC_VERSION VERSION_GREATER 5.0)
+        set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -Wformat-signedness")
     endif()
     set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE     "-O2")
     set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG       "-O0 -g3")
diff --git a/ChangeLog.d/format-signedness.txt b/ChangeLog.d/format-signedness.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ee1ee4bb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ChangeLog.d/format-signedness.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Changes
+   * Only pass -Wformat-signedness to versions of GCC that support it. Reported
+     in #3478 and fix contributed in #3479 by okhowang.