Tool for debugging makefiles

Question

I have a large legacy codebase with very complicated makefiles, with lots of variables. Sometimes I need to change them, and I find that it\'s very difficult to figure out

Answer 1

Have you been looking at the output from running make -n and make -np, and the biggie make -nd?

Are you using a fairly recent version of gmake?

Have you looked at the free chapter on Debugging Makefiles available on O'Reilly's site for their excellent book "Managing Projects with GNU Make" (Amazon Link).