asked on

What files in the debug directory do I need to execute the program?

I am about to deploy my executable to a different directory, other than the bin\Debug directory, from my Visual Studio 2005 directory. but there are other files there and want to be sure to get all those that I need.

My program is called PPUtil, so obviously I need PPUtil.exe.

What about
PPUtil.vhost.exe.config?
PPUtil.exe.config?
PPUtil.vhost.exe?
PPUtil.pdb?

Or, better yet, how do I create a Release version? What advantages are there of making a release version? If I intent to obfuscate the executable, does it matter which I use?

thanks,
newbieweb

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gregoryyoung

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curiouswebster

ASKER

What is the advantage of using the Release version the Debug version?

SOLUTION

Fernando Soto

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gregoryyoung

newbieweb: a debug build disables JIT optimizations to make it easier to match up what your code is to your debugging symbols (contained in the .pdb file). As such the code is slower and a bit larger (not substantially)

curiouswebster

ASKER

I noticed the pdb file is about two times the size if the exe. So I will bet a performance improvement may be noticable.

thanks.

gregoryyoung

yes not including the pdb with either is quite a bit better.

curiouswebster

ASKER

when you say "either", do you mean that you can run the executable compiled in Debug mode without the pdb file? Is that about the same as running the Release executable?

curiouswebster

ASKER

What about if I obfuscate the execcutable with Dotfuscator? Does the PPUtil.exe.config file have any value at that point?