在Visual C ++ 2003上删除调试符号

Question

Maybe someone can tell me how to remove the debugging symbols from my Visual Studio 2003 compiled c++ application? I compiled it as "release", are the symbols already removed then or do they still exist? if they do, how can i remove them?

thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, Once you compile in release mode then the debug symbols are already removed.

Adding debugging symbols to binaries increases the size of binaries because it is additional information than just needed for program to run, In Debug Mode these symbols are added to the binaries because the program is in development and hence it might be needed for debugging.But, In release mode the size of the binaries is to be as small as possible(as development is already done with) and hence these additional debug information is already removed once you select Release Mode.

Answer 2

As far as I know all debugging information are stored in .pdb file. In .exe there is only the name of this .pdb file and nothing more. Make an experiment and see it for yourself. Build release both with and without debugging information and compare the difference (don't change any other option, of course). Files should be almost identical. There is no reason to exclude debugging information from release build, and there are plenty of reason to include it.

Answer 3

Use debug information settings to control how and where you generate debugging symbols, whether this information is kept in object (.obj) files or in a program database (PDB). Refer to /Z7, /Zi, /ZI (Debug Information Format) in MSDN.

Correctly generating debug symbols in PDB database should not affect performance of your program. See John Robbin's blog Do PDB Files Affect Performance?