I'm trying to find a definite explanation of what effect compiling in release mode has on a .Net 3.5 web application versus debug="false". So far it looks like setting debug="false" has the same effect and compiling in release mode has been depreciated but I can't find any firm evidence this is the case.
This question looked promising but seems to be answering what's the difference between debug and release builds rather than release mode and debug="true":
What's the difference between compilation debug="false" and Release mode?
However it does link to this article:
http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2005/11/15/debug-and-release-builds-in-asp-net-2-0.aspx
"This new compilation model makes the Configuration Manager for a web site obsolete. The only option appearing in a Visual Studio 2005 web site “project” is a Debug configuration. Don’t fret – it means nothing. The web.config file now rules the school."
Now that is the closest I've had to an answer and it does seem to imply that release mode has been depreciated in favor of debug="false" but I can't find any confirmation of this on MSDN or any other source.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Update
Sorry; to clarify this is a "Web Application Project" I am referring to.
To rephrase my question slightly, if I have the following setting in web.config:
<compilation defaultLanguage="c#" debug="false">
What effect (if any) does release and debug mode compile have?
TL;DR = The more important thing is compilation debug="true|false". However, compiling in Debug has a minor effect on performance too.
The difference between Debug and Release (aside from defining the DEBUG constant or not) is the "Optimize code" flag, which is disabled in Debug and enabled in Release. (If you look at the project settings, Build tab.)
The "Optimize code" flag tells the language compiler to do some optimizations (like removing unused variables, and leaving out some debugging symbols) when producing the DLL. This is a relatively minor performance improvement (maybe a larger impact in C++ vs C#/VB) and a slight reduction in DLL memory usage, compared to when the flag is not set.
The compilation debug="true" flag tells the JIT compiler that this code should be hooked up for debugging. This reduces performance in several dimensions (load time, run time, memory, and resource loading) but enables debugging of running code.
If you want more detailed stack traces in production, then you can probably run a Debug build with compilation debug="false" with little performance difference. But I would test the performance for both to make sure you're not losing too much.
Credit belongs to this answer which links to this blog entry, and I later found this one, which contains all this info.
You have to be careful of your word choice. There are "Web Application" and "Web Site" projects.
There is no "Release" configuration for "Web Site" projects. Web sites only use the debug setting in the compilation section of web.config. If you open a "Web Site", notice the only listed configuration in the "Configuration Manager" is "Debug". You can control compilation from the project's "MSBuild Options" property page or through the "Publish Web Site" dialog.
The configurations "Release" and "Debug" work as expected for "Web Application" projects.
The idea behind 'Release' mode & 'Debug' mode is that, in debug mode, the compilation contains debug symbols which is useful for debugging but not for production, as it slows down the process.
However, 'Release' mode removes these debug symbols therefore the process runs fine without any issue.
Now, Microsoft has implemented the above model in web application projects while website project is slightly different. Hope this helps.
Here is the difference. If you have this in your web.config file:
<system.web>
<compilation debug="true" .../>
And you select Release from the dropdown in Visual Studio (note they are conflicting), would everything be compiled in debug mode or release mode?
Visual Studio knows nothing about compiling a web application. Build a web application and check the bin folder and you will notice it is empty. That is because ASP.NET compiles it. ASP.NET will use the compilation debug flag from the config file to figure out how to compile the .cs files, build forms and user controls etc. It will also use this flag to decide if it should perform bundling and minification.
This article sums it up pretty nicely:
In conclusion, you control debug and release builds using the debug attribute of the compilation section in web.config – unless you are precompiling the website with the Publish command or the Web Site Deployment tool. The WSD will let you select Debug or Release builds, precompiles the site, and modifies web.config appropriately.
Related
I'm working with a webapp that uses ASP.NET for the front end and vb.net for the backend. I worked with the app in debug mode while developing on my local machine but switched it to release mode when I was going to build it for release on my webserver. When I change it to release mode and try to build it I get thousands of errors that say things like "#object# is not defined". I went to the vb page of one of them and the imports statement for one of the .dlls at the top is grayed out. The second I switch back to debug mode the imports statement is no longer grayed out and all of the errors go away. I checked all of the release folders vs the debug folders and they both have all of the .dlls in them that they should. Please help me understand what is going on here.
It is possible that the dll reference requires a X86 or X64 Target CPU designation. It can be set in Debug mode and would require also changing the setting in Release mode.
You should be able to check it under Target CPU under Compile options.
In Visual Studio, we can choose between Release and Debug from a quick menu at the top of the IDE window. Easy. However, selecting Release from this menu does not remove debug="true" from the Web.config file. Check out the image. I can select Release, but the config file doesn't change. If debug="true" remains in the config file, is there any real difference in choosing one configuration over another from the menu?
The option compilation debug=true from web.config is linked to ASP.NET only. You will have more temporary ASP.NET files, no page timeout, it determines if aspx pages are compiled in debug mode. See here what it activates.
Debug/Release is linked to how you compile your c# code into Dlls. When Release is activated you don't have the debug information and several optimizations are not done. See here for more information.
I'm getting this error, vb / .net4, although the website is working fine, at the bottom of the page:
YAF Compiled in DEBUG MODE.
Recompile in RELEASE MODE to remove this information:
I opened up Visual Studio 2010 right-clicked my solution, looked under the "build" tab, but I cannot find anything about release mode. Could somebody please tell me where I can find this and build my site in release mode? Thanks!
I'm experiencing the same issue with VS 2010 and VS 2011 beta. I suspect a third party tool or plugin may be the culprit and am in the process of looking into this.
For now, just change the compilation switch in the Web.Config to false:
<system.web>
<compilation debug="false">
</system.web>
UPDATE 1:
I have fixed my VS 2010 issue by uninstalling Telerik JustTrace. I was still experiencing the same issue with VS 2011 beta (on a separate VM to VS 2010) though. So, I tried using a Web Application Project instead of a Website Project and the problem went away.
UPDATE 2:
This is normal for website projects as each page is compiled dynamically:
Why can't you build a website in release mode?
Make sure you have the "Standard" toolbar visible and you should see something like this:
Change the "Debug" to "Release" and rebuild your solution.
I have it right in my toolbar.
But you can also change it by using the menu Build => Configuration Manager. Select Release from the Configuration drop down next to your project.
I'm trying to set up a web app (32bit on ii7/win7, 32bit setting is enabled, everything is compiled to x86, using vs2008), but there's clearly some dll module loading issue happening. I've been watching procmon and fusion logs but I'm not seeing the name of the missing dll.
I'm a complete newbie to asp.net (but fairly heavy experience on other platforms).
I know I can call depends.exe on a binary to see what the dependancies are, but how do I do it for asp.net? specifically, is it possible to get a list of the dlls that iis7 loads for my application?
update: I manually blew away all of the binaries for my application and rebuilt (clean didnt seem to do the trick, I guess). it's now sort of working. or at least it's getting further and more detailed.
An asp.net web project dll shouldn't depend on anything that is not part of the default .net run-time or explicitly referenced in the project. I would start by reviewing the references. Noramlly an asp.net web project has a bin folder that contains the compiled website/webapplication and any dll's that it depends on (aside from the .net run-time). This is usually done by the programming tool used to create the project.
If you still don't find the culprit, you could try using Filemon (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896642.aspx) and use it to watch IIS to see what files it is looking for and isn't finding.
An additional option is to examine the web.config file that should have been included with the web site/application. Its an XML file and usually has an Assemblies section that lists assemblies that should be loaded. For example you might see:
<assemblies>
<add assembly="MySql.Data, Version=6.2.3.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=C5687FC88969C44D"/>
</assemblies>
This means that the code wants to use the MySQL.Data.dll, and specifically version 6.2.3.0 of that DLL. It is possible to have different versions of .Net dll files installed at the same time. So you might have the desired DLL, but not the correct version as specified in the Web.Config file.
Is there a "debug" and "release" build in VS 2005? If so, how do I switch between the two?
Saif:
Are you working on an ASP.NET web site project?
If so, Visual Studio delegates the build step to the ASP.NET runtime, and the ASP.NET runtime picks up debug versus release in the web.config .
I have a post on the topic that will help: Debug and Release Builds in ASP.NET 2.0
Note that a couple things have changed since that time. Namely, MSFT released two add-ins for VS 2005 - one to add real web application projects that have debug and release settings (for the code-behind and loose c# files), and they also released web deployment projects, which can use the asp.net command line compiler. Web App projects became a part of VS2005 in SP1, too.
Use the Configuration Manager. Right-click on your solution in the Solution Explorer, select "Configuration Manager...", and change the active solution configuration.
You can change your project's behavior when in debug or release mode. Bring up your project properties pane, select the appropriate configuration from the dropdowns at top, and change the settings as appropriate. Notice that some changes are made by default for you. For instance, release builds by default are set to optimize code, and debug builds are not.
In the ASP.NET web.config file there is a debug="true" attribute. The first time you run the web application Visual Studio will ask you if you want to turn on debugging, selecting yes will cause Visual Studio to edit the config file for you.
Just remember to make sure you change that back to false for your release builds. For more info click here.
The quick way is to right click on the toolbars and turn on the standard toobar. Then you can quickly change between build targets by choosing the one you want from the solutions configuration drop down.
If you want to change what those configurations do, then follow what Michael Petrotta said in his answer.