diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 99a34c1600..0b8c7b2867 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ nobuild_targets := source %-source \
 	clean distclean help show-targets graph-depends \
 	%-graph-depends %-show-depends %-show-version \
 	graph-build graph-size list-defconfigs \
-	savedefconfig update-defconfig printvars
+	savedefconfig update-defconfig printvars show-vars
 ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),)
 BR_BUILDING = y
 else ifneq ($(filter-out $(nobuild_targets),$(MAKECMDGOALS)),)
@@ -1062,6 +1062,7 @@ endif
 # Makefiles. Alternatively, if a non-empty VARS variable is passed,
 # only the variables matching the make pattern passed in VARS are
 # displayed.
+# show-vars does the same, but as a JSON dictionnary.
 .PHONY: printvars
 printvars:
 	@:
@@ -1074,6 +1075,22 @@ printvars:
 			$(info $V=$(if $(RAW_VARS),$(value $V),$($V))))))
 # ')))) # Syntax colouring...
 
+.PHONY: show-vars
+show-vars: VARS?=%
+show-vars:
+	@:
+	$(info $(call clean-json, { \
+			$(foreach V, \
+				$(sort $(filter $(VARS),$(.VARIABLES))), \
+				$(if $(filter-out environment% default automatic, $(origin $V)), \
+					"$V": { \
+						"expanded": $(call mk-json-str,$($V))$(comma) \
+						"raw": $(call mk-json-str,$(value $V)) \
+					}$(comma) \
+				) \
+			) \
+	} ))
+
 .PHONY: clean
 clean:
 	rm -rf $(BASE_TARGET_DIR) $(BINARIES_DIR) $(HOST_DIR) $(HOST_DIR_SYMLINK) \
@@ -1166,6 +1183,8 @@ help:
 	@echo '  pkg-stats              - generate info about packages as JSON and HTML'
 	@echo '  missing-cpe            - generate XML snippets for missing CPE identifiers'
 	@echo '  printvars              - dump internal variables selected with VARS=...'
+	@echo '  show-vars              - dump all internal variables as a JSON blurb; use VARS=...'
+	@echo '                           to limit the list to variables names matching that pattern'
 	@echo
 	@echo '  make V=0|1             - 0 => quiet build (default), 1 => verbose build'
 	@echo '  make O=dir             - Locate all output files in "dir", including .config'