(I admit that I remain intimidated by the build system.)

I'm renabling some ticky counter bumps from within the RTS. The most direct path I see to this involves adding -ticky to makefile variables such as WAY_debug_HC_OPTS. (See the APPENDIX for why I need that.)

It seems that the debug way is only used in the build system for building the RTS. Is that right?

If so, will a flag added to the debug HC_OPTS vars in ways.mk only be used when compiling from .cmm sources? If so, my -ticky flag won't be putting ticky counters into any .o file where I'm not expecting them, right?

So:

1) Is it a bad idea to add -ticky to the non-threaded and non-profiling WAY_debug*_HC_OPTS variables in ways.mk?

2) Alternative designs? A few come to mind, but they're more invasive/fragile.

Thank you for your time.

APPENDIX

For example:

* The (generated) definition of stg_ap_*_info uses BUILD_PAP

* The definition of BUILD_PAP uses TICK_ALLOC_PAP

* TICK_ALLOC_PAP is elaborated by CmmParse.y using StgCmmTicky.tickyAllocPAP

* tickyAllocPAP emits no code unless Opt_Ticky is present.

* -ticky is not currently in the relevant command lines