title: Why is there a pdb file in my Release directory?
body: <p>When I build a <strong>release</strong> version of a project in Visual Studio 2008, it creates a .pdb file, e.g. for a simple WPF project it generates a .exe and .pdb file.</p>
  
  <p>I've always understood <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_database" rel="nofollow noreferrer">.pdb files</a> to be for <strong>debugging</strong>, so I would expect them to be in the <strong>Debug</strong> folder but not the <strong>Release</strong> folder.</p>
  
  <p>And looking around at other StackOverflow questions, it doesn't seem that <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/769995/debugging-a-release-version-of-a-dll-with-pdb-file">pdb files work well with teh Release version anyway</a>.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Why are .pdb files generated in the Release folder by default and how can I turn that option off?</strong></p>