Why doesn't switching to release in VS set the debug parameter to false in web.config

Question

In VS2008 (and earlier if I'm not mistaking) I have dropdown that lets me choose between Debug and Release mode. All well.
When I switch VS to Release, the debug attribute in my web.config files isn't set to false at all though.
Is this the way it is supposed to be? I am bound to forget to set it to the correct value on deploying.. What measures should I take to make sure this is working like it should?

Answer 1

Well your web.config would probably be different for debug and release (connection string, passwords, etc...) but if it's not, look at a postbuild event which would copy over a different file.

Also check this blog post from Scott Guthrie.

Answer 2

This is one solution to this problem:

http://blog.aggregatedintelligence.com/2009/04/aspnet-never-again-fear-publishing-your.html

Answer 3

The build flavour just affects how the code is compiled, it does not affect your configuration files. So yes, to answer your question, this is how it is supposd to be.

Answer 4

Changing release mode will not change web.config, however when you build your web app, it will build the dll for only C# files in release mode where else your web.config's debug on/off is used by IIS to build debug/release version of ASPX markup files.

Answer 5

The element is a good solution if you have access to the machine.config of your server, which hosts only production applications.

I usually modify the web.config file when generating the deployed files as part of the automated build process. For example web deployment projects can perform web.config section replacement. There are a number of reasons I don't like web deployment projects and I tend to do it with a simple VBS file that modifies the file using MSXML.

Answer 6

The answer you selected from Bobby is not correct. Visual Studio builds the files for you in release while you are in VStudio.

IIS compiles the code at startup with that setting when you deploy. Not the bin directory, but the App_Code and the code behind files.

You should precompile your app before deployment which will compile your code behinds and App_Code dir into dlls in the bin directory.

The deployment tools automatically switch that setting if you set the deployment tool to Release

I use web deployment projects. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/28/vs-2008-web-deployment-project-support-released.aspx