[bug #59169] Add a --debug=why category for the -d/--debug option

[David Boyce]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?59169>

                 Summary: Add a --debug=why category for the -d/--debug option
                 Project: make
            Submitted by: boyski
            Submitted on: Wed 23 Sep 2020 02:22:35 AM UTC
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Enhancement
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
       Component Version: 4.3
        Operating System: None
           Fixed Release: None
           Triage Status: None

    _______________________________________________________

Details:

This simple patch adds a --debug=why category to print the contents of $? for
every recipe invoked. Extremely similar to --trace and in fact it piggybacks
off the same code, the only difference being that it doesn't force the recipe
to be printed like --trace does.

Implemented because I find the ability to print $? quite useful but don't want
to have to print the recipe too, and --trace per se cannot be changed
compatibly.

In my day job we have many recipes up to thousands of characters long so we
generally silence them and print only "$(info Making $@)" by default. This
makes --trace sub-optimal for us as it stands.

In fact I wonder why --trace was implemented as a standalone flag instead of a
--debug category? I'm sure there was a reason but I can't think of what it
might be. If it was up to me I'd consider implementing both --debug=trace and
--debug=why and documenting --trace as just an alias of --debug=trace.

This needs a doc patch and so on but I'm ignoring those unless/until this idea
is accepted.



    _______________________________________________________

File Attachments:


-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed 23 Sep 2020 02:22:35 AM UTC  Name: why.patch  Size: 1KiB   By:
boyski

<http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/download.php?file_id=49845>

    _______________________________________________________

Reply to this item at:

  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?59169>

_______________________________________________
  Message sent via Savannah
  https://savannah.gnu.org/