How to do make debugging
Verbose output
When writing make rules, we use make V=1 to see the commands being executed.
for example, when make kernel image for raspberry pi, the output will be like
this:
$ ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- make zImage V=1
Shell xtrace mode
Another option is to use shell xtrace mode, this will show you more detailed
info than verbose mode:
$ ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- make zImage SHELL='sh -x'
Build AOSP
In case of you are working on aosp, try to use showcommands to see what happens.
Dummy make
Use make -n or make --dry-run to do nothing but show the making process.