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

This is one solution to this problem:

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

Answer 2

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 3

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.