RelWithDebInfo

RelWithDebInfo, short for Release with Debug Information, is a common build configuration used by CMake and other build systems. It represents a middle ground between Debug and Release, aiming to provide optimized code while retaining debugging symbols. This configuration is often chosen for distribution builds where performance matters but some debugging capability is still needed.

In practice, RelWithDebInfo enables compiler optimizations similar to Release, while including a reasonable amount of debugging information. The exact compiler flags depend on the toolchain, but the goal is to produce binaries that run fast like Release builds and can be symbolicated for debugging without requiring a full Debug build. As a result, binaries built with RelWithDebInfo are generally smaller and faster than Debug builds, and include enough symbols to diagnose issues such as crashes or performance problems. However, they may not expose every internal check or variable that a pure Debug build would, and the symbol footprint is larger than Release but smaller than Debug.

Usage typically involves selecting RelWithDebInfo as the build type. In CMake, you can request it with cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo .. For multi-config generators such as Visual Studio, the configuration is chosen in the IDE or via command line per configuration; debugging symbol packaging for releases may still be handled via separate symbol packages in some distributions. RelWithDebInfo is a standard option across platforms and toolchains, intended for production-like builds that retain debuggability.