catkin_make repeatedly cmakes

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As catkin wraps CMake, it should be possible to use 'all' the debug options cmake supports ('all' is in quotes, as it's not a lot). From the cmake manpage (this is for 3.0, but it's mostly the same for older versions):

-Wdev
    Enable developer warnings.
    Enable warnings that are meant for the author of the CMakeLists.txt files.

--debug-output
    Put cmake in a debug mode.
    Print extra stuff during the cmake run like stack traces with message(send_error )
    calls.

--trace
    Put cmake in trace mode.
    Print a trace of all calls made and from where with message(send_error ) calls.

Pass these either with --cmake-args .. through catkin_make, or do a mkdir build; cd build; cmake --DEBUG-OPTION ../src (the latter does not use Catkin, so you could use that to see whether catkin itself is perhaps doing something different / unexpected).

PS: afaik, CMake employs a system similar to plain make for checking whether it should re-run it's configuration step. The last time a CMakeLists.txt was changed is a factor in this. If filesystem timestamps are 'somehow' not in sync with your local system clock (ie: they are 'from the future'), I think CMake would keep rerunning its configuration step at each invocation. I can't think of a way where that would happen with each invocation though (unless someone/something is changing the clock all the time).

The above is probably not happening on your system, but I wanted to mention it just in case.