Need to get $MAKEFLAGS value only

[gk]

My wrapper application adds some options and passes other options through 
to Gnu make.
I would like to call make and get the value of $MAKEFLAGS without actually 
building anything.

In other words, rather than emulating Gnu make's options parsing, I would 
like to call Gnu make, passing some parameters and get back the value of 
$MAKEFLAGS, without the -C, -o, -W, -f options which aren't ever included 
in $MAKEFLAGS, and without the targets of course.

Of course I could call my application back, from a makefile rule, and get 
$MAKEFLAGS since it is always exported but then I'd be in a subshell which 
is not what I want.

I don't suppose there is a way to do this since there is no option 
documented. I was just wondering if there are library functions I could 
call to do this.
Thanks,
Greg Keraunen <address@hidden>