[Please CC me on the responses, as I'm not subscribed to the list.] I'm not sure if this is the right place for discussing this issue. If it isn't, please point me to a better one.
With latest versions of Autotools, compiling packages by default does not show the full compilation/link command lines, but only their short "summaries", like this: CC serv.o CC udp-serv.o CC common.o CC p11common.o CCLD gnutls-serv This is fine when the build goes smoothly, as it avoids cluttering the terminal with lengthy commands. However, when something does go wrong, it is important to see the full command that failed. The essence of this mail is that when I bumped into such problems, I didn't find any obvious place which would explain how to accomplish that. By digging into the produced Makefile's, I finally found that saying make AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY=1 would accomplish what I needed. I can find this variable documented in the Automake manual. However, building a package does not require Automake, and even if it is installed, it is not immediately obvious that this should be the place to look. As you all well know, the implementation of the verbosity level is quite contrived and is not easy to understand even when you find it in the produced Makefile's. I'm not quite sure what would be the best way of making this information more easily available. Perhaps adding it to the standard INSTALL file, e.g. under "Troubleshooting", would be a first step. Thanks.