Edit

StripSymbols defaults to true

  • Article

When .NET 7 introduced Native AOT deployment, it also introduced the StripSymbols property that optionally allows debugging symbols to be stripped from the produced executable on Linux into a separate file. The default value of the property was false. In .NET 8, the default value has changed to true.

Previous behavior

With PublishAOT, debugging symbols on Linux were placed into the produced executable by default, with an opt-in option to place them into a separate .dbg file.

New behavior

With PublishAOT, debugging symbols on Linux are placed into a .dbg file by default, with an opt-out option to place them into the executable.

Version introduced

.NET 8 Preview 4

Reason for change

Based on feedback, we determined that .NET users prefer the .NET-symbols convention instead of the platform-native convention. However, the option to strip the symbols was not discoverable enough.

  • If you rely on debugging symbols to be present in the main executable, add <StripSymbols>false</StripSymbols> to your project file to restore the previous behavior.
  • If you choose to use the new default, verify that the debugging symbols in .dbg files are properly archived if you expect you'll need to debug the generated executables.

Affected APIs

None.