Apr
24
2012
we have to answer multiple times and explain about why we are keeping pdb file in release and why other time not.
After looking into multiple blogs and going through details conclusion is simple.
If you have in-house releases consider releasing with PDB else you must not include PDB.
Generating PDBs in any configuration is a good thing, if you can consider providing PDB as separate setup so if anything goes wrong ask them run pdb setup and check error again for little more detail.
To make story short observe output:
Without PDB:
System.FormatException: One of the identified items was in an invalid format. at WindowsFormsApplication1.Form1.button1_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
With PDB:
System.FormatException: One of the identified items was in an invalid format. at WindowsFormsApplication1.Form1.button1_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\WindowsFormsApplication1\WindowsFormsApplication1\Form1.cs:line 21
Here are some links for reference:
Disable .pdb file generation in Release Mode
Add Crash Reporting to Your Applications
PDB Files: What Every Developer Must Know
Cheers