# Linking Debug Information

## Windows*

Use option Z7 at compile time or option debug at link time to tell the compiler to generate symbolic debugging information in the object file. Alternately, use option Zi at link time to generate executables with debug information in the .pdb file.

## Linux*

Use option g at compile time to tell the compiler to generate symbolic debugging information in the object file.

Use option gsplit-dwarf to create a separate object file containing DWARF debug information. Because the DWARF object file is not used by the linker, this reduces the amount of debug information the linker must process and it results in a smaller executable file. See gsplit-dwarf for detailed information.

Parent topic: Compilation