diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1671db3bdd..f26ef1b1df 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -8,9 +8,12 @@ SRC_PATH=.
 
 UNCHECKED_GOALS := %clean TAGS cscope ctags dist \
     html info pdf txt \
-    help check-help \
+    help check-help print-% \
     docker docker-% vm-test vm-build-%
 
+print-%:
+	@echo '$*=$($*)'
+
 # All following code might depend on configuration variables
 ifneq ($(wildcard config-host.mak),)
 # Put the all: rule here so that config-host.mak can contain dependencies.
diff --git a/docs/devel/build-system.txt b/docs/devel/build-system.txt
index 386ef36ee3..52501f2ad9 100644
--- a/docs/devel/build-system.txt
+++ b/docs/devel/build-system.txt
@@ -510,3 +510,16 @@ default-configs/$TARGET-NAME file as input.
 This is the entrypoint used when make recurses to build a single system
 or userspace emulator target. It is merely a symlink back to the
 Makefile.target in the top level.
+
+
+Useful make targets
+===================
+
+- help
+
+  Print a help message for the most common build targets.
+
+- print-VAR
+
+  Print the value of the variable VAR. Useful for debugging the build
+  system.