Does it support parallel builds?

The skill diagnoses if your Makefile is safe for parallelism and then provides the correct -j configurations and MAKEFLAGS to enable safe, multi-core execution.

Can it fix 'nothing to be done' errors when a file has clearly changed?

Yes, it inspects the dependency graph using 'make -p' and traces file timestamps to identify missing header references or incorrect file paths in your rules.

Will it suggest optimizations automatically?

It follows a 'measure first' philosophy, ensuring that optimizations like ccache or lazy wildcards are only suggested once a specific bottleneck has been verified via diagnostics.

How does this skill find why my build is slow?

It uses timing commands and the 'make -d' flag to identify which targets are consuming the most time and explains the specific reasoning Make uses to trigger those builds.

How do I check the value of a specific Makefile variable?

It uses 'make -p' filtered through grep to extract the exact value, origin, and expansion type (recursive vs. immediate) of any variable in your build environment.

GNU Make Debugging & Optimization

Name: GNU Make Debugging & Optimization
Author: therealbill

bytherealbill

0•

배포 및 DevOps

Diagnoses build bottlenecks and resolves complex Makefile dependency issues using systematic diagnostic methodologies.

This skill equips Claude with a rigorous, diagnostic-first approach to Makefile management, moving beyond guesswork to identify the root causes of slow builds and incorrect rebuild behaviors. By leveraging GNU Make's internal diagnostic flags like dry-runs, debug mode, and database printing, it helps developers understand exactly why targets are being built or ignored, surface hidden variable values, and implement targeted performance optimizations like parallel execution and compiler caching only after the bottleneck is verified.

주요 기능

010 GitHub stars

02Variable and implicit rule inspection via database printing

03Root cause analysis for 'always rebuild' and 'never rebuild' issues

04Build performance profiling and incremental build timing

05Targeted optimization implementation for parallel builds and caching

06Systematic debugging using -n, -d, -p, and --trace flags

사용 사례

01Optimizing a legacy Makefile that takes too long to complete incremental development builds

02Identifying why a specific header file change isn't triggering a recompile of dependent objects

03Fixing a project where Make rebuilds every file on every invocation regardless of changes

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add therealbill/mynet makefile-debugging-optimization

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

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