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Setting DebugSymbols to false disables PDB generation

  • Article

The existing MSBuild documentation says that specifying DebugSymbols=false on the command line means that program database (.pdb) files aren't generated. However, that wasn't true before .NET 8. The behavior has been updated such that setting DebugSymbols to false now suppresses PDB generation by changing DebugType to None.

If you currently have a script where you expect PDBs to be created, and the behavior changes when you upgrade to .NET 8 or a later version, check if the script includes -p:DebugSymbols=false.

Previous behavior

-p:DebugSymbols=false did not suppress PDB generation.

New behavior

-p:DebugSymbols=false suppresses PDB generation.

Version introduced

.NET 8

Type of change

This change is a behavioral change.

Reason for change

This change aligns with the existing documentation and user expectations. The previous behavior often led to confusion.

If you want to generate PDBs, don't specify -p:DebugSymbols=false on the command line. Simply remove that property and the PDB files will be generated again.

Affected APIs

N/A