ASP.NET Website DLL: Debug vs. Release version

Question

When uploading my ASP.NET web application .dll file to my website's /bin/ directory, are there any disadvantages to using the debug version as opposed to recompiling a release build.

For example, while working locally on the website, the build configuration is set to Debug. When things look good, I go ahead and upload the latest .dll for the website/webapp. Should I instead at that point switch the build configuration to Release, then compile, and then upload that version of the .dll to the server?

I hoping this question isn't a duplicate. I read a number of other questions with similar words in the subject, but didn't find something directly related to my question.

Thanks,

Adam

Answer 1

Running with debug assemblies is a little heavier on performance, as they take up more memory, but usually not extremely so. You should only deploy a release build when it's really a "release". If you still anticipate some level of unexpected behavior in the wild, I'd consider using debug assemblies, so you will get more useful information from unhandled exceptions. The real performance "gotcha" is having debug="true" in your web.config.