Document "PKG_DEBUG_LEVEL" definition, and also mention "make show-var

VARNAME=..."

1 files changed, 22 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Packages.txt b/Packages.txt
index 0c09f1ddb76..978aba4d55c 100644
--- a/Packages.txt
+++ b/Packages.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# $NetBSD: Packages.txt,v 1.249 2002/06/17 21:46:04 skrll Exp $
+# $NetBSD: Packages.txt,v 1.250 2002/06/18 16:14:54 agc Exp $
 ###########################################################################
 
 			==========================
@@ -296,6 +296,27 @@ get an overview of what will be set there by default.  Environment
 variables such as LOCALBASE, and X11BASE can be set in /etc/mk.conf to
 save having to remember to set them each time you want to use pkgsrc.
 
+Occasionally, people want to "look under the covers" to see what is
+going on when a package is building or being installed. This may be
+for debugging purposes, or out of simple curiosity. A number of utility
+values have been added to help with this.
+
+(1) If you invoke the make(1) command with PKG_DEBUG_LEVEL=2, then a
+huge amount of information will be displayed.  As a worked example,
+
+	make patch PKG_DEBUG_LEVEL=2
+
+will show all the commands that are invoked, up to and including the
+"patch stage".
+
+(2) If you want to know the value of a certain make(1) definition, then
+the VARNAME definition should be used, in conjunction with the show-var
+target. e.g.
+
+	make show-var VARNAME=DISTFILES
+
+will show the expansion of the make(1) variable "DISTFILES".
+
 If you want to de-install and re-install a binary package that you've
 created (see next section), that you put into pkgsrc/packages manually or
 that's located on a remote FTP server, you can use the the "bin-install"