How to debug make using remake

In big projects that use Make, it can be hard to examine how a make build is working and to diagnose a build problem. Imagine my joy when I finally discovered ReMake. This is a debugger built off a version of GNU Make. It essentially allows you to step through a make build just like you would step through a program using GDB and examine state at any point in time.

• Installing remake is easy on Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install remake

• Using remake is as easy as replacing your make command with it:

$ remake
$ remake some_target

• If you want a verbose output of what is happening with your build use -x option:

$ remake -x

• To print explicitly named targets in makefiles:

$ remake --targets

• To print the subset of targets which have commands associated with them:

$ remake --tasks

• To actually debug a build with its debugger:

$ remake -X

The debugger jumps and waits at the line with the target that it needs to execute first. Use the help command to get a list of commands that you can use. They are all similar to GDB: step to step into, next to execute next line, print to print values of make variables (this is a lifesaver!) and so on.

Tried with: remake 3.82 and Ubuntu 16.04