How to disable PDB file creation for C/C++ in Visual Studio 2015?

Asked Feb 26 '18 at 12:19

Active Feb 26 '18 at 12:35

Viewed 2,385 times

This SO question / answer is just for C#.

I tried several options, but none of them worked. Among others, I tried:

Project -> Properties -> Linker -> Debugging -> Generate Debug Info -> No
Project -> Properties -> Linker -> Debugging -> Generate Program Database File -> No
Project -> Properties -> C/C++ -> General -> Debug Information Format -> None
Project -> Properties -> C/C++ -> Output Files -> Program Database File Name ->
Project -> Properties -> C/C++ -> Command Line -> Additional Options -> /DEBUG:NONE

How can I stop Visual Studio creating a PDB file (and thus adding a link to it in the executable) for my C/C++ projects?

edited Feb 26 '18 at 12:35

asked Feb 26 '18 at 12:19

langlauf.io

why? if the tool crashes you can't debug it. – magicandre1981 Feb 26 '18 at 15:31
I don‘t want the full path to the PDB inside my binary. I also don’t want any debug info in my binaries, for IP protection. – langlauf.io Feb 26 '18 at 17:11
Is there a reason you can't build in Release mode? – Phil Brubaker Feb 27 '18 at 01:21
I can build in release mode. But this also generates a PDB file. – langlauf.io Feb 27 '18 at 05:44
the path is not embedded in exe. The linker adds a GUID in the exe + PDB and this Guid is used to find the correct PDB. An the PDB includes the source information if it is a private PDB – magicandre1981 Feb 27 '18 at 16:22
I am pretty sure the path to the PDB is embedded. I can extract it. – langlauf.io Feb 28 '18 at 08:26
See [this stackoverflow article](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11109189/remove-pdb-references-from-released-file) – Evgen Mar 22 '19 at 00:14

0 Answers0