Description of the problem / feature request:

Running bazel --explain explain.log will create explain.log with an explanation why a target was rebuilt. Unfortunately it lacks detailed information about which files changed. Instead a typical diagnostic is:

Build options: --announce_rc --explain explain.log
Executing action 'BazelWorkspaceStatusAction stable-status.txt': unconditional execution is requested.
Executing action 'Building something //some:target': One of the files has changed.

Feature requests: what underlying problem are you trying to solve with this feature?

I would like to specify --explain explain.log for my builds unconditionally to adhoc debug "huh-why-did-this-now-build?"-situations.

Ninja's explain log -d explain helped me in the past numerous times to track down dependency issues.

What's the output of bazel info release?

development version

If bazel info release returns "development version" or "(@Non-Git)", tell us how you built Bazel.

Recent Bazel used for Android