# Using --trace or --debug with the -E option (from a newbie)
**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/using-trace-or-debug-with-the-e-option-from-a-newbie/15211
**Category:** Usage
**Created:** [October 2, 2025, 12:52pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/using-trace-or-debug-with-the-e-option-from-a-newbie/15211 "2025-10-02T12:52:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AlbertM](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/AlbertM)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2025, 12:52pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/using-trace-or-debug-with-the-e-option-from-a-newbie/15211/1 "2025-10-02T12:52:02Z")
Hi,
Specifying -trace or –debug before the -E option messes up the -E option. I can’t find this documented in the options page ([https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v4.0/manual/cmake.1.html#run-a-command-line-tool](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v4.0/manual/cmake.1.html#run-a-command-line-tool))
This might be a bug but it might at least be nice to indicate in the documentation or maybe even cmake could flag this.
This was particularly confusing when I was trying to debug something that I was only trying to build which used cmake. I am brand new to cmake and I figured I’d add –debug to a command that was failing. My command was something like:
> cmake -trace -E “abc.exe” -o xyz.txt
cmake complained:
> CMake Error: Unknown argument -o
Thanks,
Albert
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### Author:  [@jtxa](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/jtxa)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/using-trace-or-debug-with-the-e-option-from-a-newbie/15211/2 "2025-10-02T22:59:41Z")
The synopsis show which command line flag results into which action.
Each action is described in its own chapter with all details.
The options of “Generate a Project Buildsystem” cannot be applied to the other actions, like “Run a Command-Line Tool“, they are not mentioned there.