Re: HOWTO debug makefiles?

[Paul D. Smith]

%% "Villalovos, John L" <address@hidden> writes:

  vjl> I was wondering if there was some information out there on howto
  vjl> debug makefiles.

Flags passed to the top-level make _should_ be passed to all submakes,
unless the parent make goes out of its way to remove them.

So you should be able to use make -p and/or make -d and that should be
true when your makefile is invoked.

  vjl> Is there a way to echo out a variable even if I don't have a target
  vjl> which is getting called in my Makefile?

Sure; just use something like:

  $(warning variable FOO = $(FOO))

You can also use $(shell) to run shell commands, like this:

  $(shell env | sort 1>&2)

this will show what variables are exported to the environment for
example.  Remember for $(shell) that you have to redirect the output to
stderr, because $(shell) in make behaves like `` (backquotes) do in the
shell or Perl.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
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 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist