diff --git a/Documentation/coccinelle.txt b/Documentation/coccinelle.txt
index 2516c5ef1691..66e822f8caee 100644
--- a/Documentation/coccinelle.txt
+++ b/Documentation/coccinelle.txt
@@ -175,6 +175,18 @@ instance:
     make coccicheck COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/free/kfree.cocci MODE=report DEBUG_FILE=cocci.err
     cat cocci.err
 
+You can use SPFLAGS to add debugging flags, for instance you may want to
+add both --profile --show-trying to SPFLAGS when debugging. For instance
+you may want to use:
+
+    rm -f err.log
+    export COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/misc/irqf_oneshot.cocci
+    make coccicheck DEBUG_FILE="err.log" MODE=report SPFLAGS="--profile --show-trying" M=./drivers/mfd/arizona-irq.c
+
+err.log will now have the profiling information, while stdout will
+provide some progress information as Coccinelle moves forward with
+work.
+
 DEBUG_FILE support is only supported when using coccinelle >= 1.2.
 
  Additional flags
diff --git a/scripts/coccicheck b/scripts/coccicheck
index 3f0bb3f0fddc..081ba5bff79c 100755
--- a/scripts/coccicheck
+++ b/scripts/coccicheck
@@ -32,6 +32,27 @@ fi
 
 FLAGS="--very-quiet"
 
+# You can use SPFLAGS to append extra arguments to coccicheck or override any
+# heuristics done in this file as Coccinelle accepts the last options when
+# options conflict.
+#
+# A good example for use of SPFLAGS is if you want to debug your cocci script,
+# you can for instance use the following:
+#
+# $ export COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/misc/irqf_oneshot.cocci
+# $ make coccicheck MODE=report DEBUG_FILE="all.err" SPFLAGS="--profile --show-trying" M=./drivers/mfd/arizona-irq.c
+#
+# "--show-trying" should show you what rule is being processed as it goes to
+# stdout, you do not need a debug file for that. The profile output will be
+# be sent to stdout, if you provide a DEBUG_FILE the profiling data can be
+# inspected there.
+#
+# --profile will not output if --very-quiet is used, so avoid it.
+echo $SPFLAGS | egrep -e "--profile|--show-trying" 2>&1 > /dev/null
+if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+	FLAGS="--quiet"
+fi
+
 # spatch only allows include directories with the syntax "-I include"
 # while gcc also allows "-Iinclude" and "-include include"
 COCCIINCLUDE=${LINUXINCLUDE//-I/-I }