Debug mode and Release mode

Debug mode and Release mode are different configurations for building your .Net project. Programmers generally use the Debug mode for debugging step by step their .Net project and select the Release mode for the final build of Assembly file (.dll or .exe).

The Debug mode does not optimize the binary it produces because the relationship between source code and generated instructions is more complex. This allows breakpoints to be set accurately and allows a programmer to step through the code one line at a time. The Debug configuration of your program is compiled with full symbolic debug information which help the debugger figure out where it is in the source code.

Is Release mode is faster than Debug mode ?

The Release mode enables optimizations and generates without any debug data, so it is fully optimized. . Lots of your code could be completely removed or rewritten in Release mode. The resulting executable will most likely not match up with your written code. Because of this release mode will run faster than debug mode due to the optimizations.

What is .pdb files ?

Debug information can be generated in a .pdb (Program Database File) file depending on the compilaer options that are used. A .pdb file holds debugging and project state information that allows incremental linking of a Debug configuration of your program. A Program Database File is created when you compile a VB.Net or C# program with debug mode.

In Asp.Net ?

It is important to note that Debug mode or Release mode in a web application is controlled by the web.config file, not your settings within Visual Studio.

e.g.

<system.web>

    <compilation debug="true">