The biggest difference between these is that:
In a debug build the complete symbolic debug information is emitted to help while debugging applications and also the code optimization is not taken into account.
While in release build the symbolic debug info is not emitted and the code execution is optimized.
Also, because the symbolic info is not emitted in a release build, the size of the final executable is lesser than a debug executable.

One can expect to see funny errors in release builds due to compiler optimizations or differences in memory layout or initialization. These are ususally referred to as Release - Only bugs :)

In terms of execution speed, a release executable will execute faster for sure, but not always will this different be significant.

It's observed that some of the MSVC++ calls work find in the debug mode, but fail functionally in the release builds.

These are specifically referring to the FreeExtra call used in our application.

The debug mode shows a clear reducion in the private memory bytes, while release mode, does not show any changes.

Any help / pointers will be appreciatd ...

Regards,
Shirish

* the sample code below written in VB.NET 2005 shows some of the "release" bug. Code below is working in debug mode but not in release mode.


badtrip!


Dim strdate As String
Dim strdate2 As String
Dim strlast As Integer = 1
strdate = Format(Date.Now, "MM/dd/yyyy").ToString
strdate2 = Format(Date.Now, "MM/dd/yyyy").ToString
If strdate.ToString <> strdate2.ToString Then
If strlast = 0 Then
End
End If
End If

in Debug mode the complete debug symbol is emitted so that the code optimization is not taken place
but in release mode the complete debut symbol is not emitted so that code optimization is taken place

The debug build is created with some embedded information which allows the debugger to debug the application and exposed the runtime behavior of the application. On the down side, the debug build is a bit slower and inefficient in execution and larger in size.

the last modifications in the project is stored in release foler why not in debug folder?

Debug is for everything but Release is for something

Arcane wizardry burn in hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please tell me which is better debug or build

I have one question
what is use of symbolic debug information ?
which is in Debug build.

And we can debug the code in Release mode then why symbolic debug information not required?

Release mode will execute faster than debug mode and release mode takes lesser size than debug mode.

XML Comments and inline comments are removed in released build.

When you compile your application in release mode debug information is not generated and this is the option normally used when you want to deploy your application to client.debug mode is heavy since debugging info gets generated and is used while development to find out error in your code.
When we are moving code to production then we make the mode as Release. Because there no debug is required and the execution also very fast in this mode due to the .pdb file formation will not happens.

Debug build
1. Basically this for developer
2. Complier code optimization is OFF

Release build
1. Basically this for Client to whom you want to distribute the application
2. Complier code optimization is ON