Enable Debug Mode on Windows with Visual Studio Compiler

Hi,
I'd like to enable debug mode in my python module, using visual studio toolchain.
The python module calls native C / C++ code via cython.
Currently I use the following approach:

1. extract the output from running python.exe setup.py build --compiler=msvc
2. change /Ox to /Od (disable compiler optimization)
3. add /DEBUG flag to linker flags

Can you help guide me what is the best approach?

Currently I build the python module's native code in "Release" mode with debug information enabled and optimization disabled.
If I build in Debug mode I get issues when loading third-party python modules (using pip): they are prebuilt in release mode.
So I use release mode but enable debug symbols, etc.

There's two issues:

1. lack of debug-mode python modules in pip, on Windows platform
2. need ability to modify compiler / linker flags in setuptools

Thanks,
Jeff

Start with the setup.py build --compiler=msvc command described in the report and trace how setuptools handles the MSVC compiler and linker flags. Compare the requested /Ox, /Od, and /DEBUG behavior with the current build path; done means a supported way to configure these flags without editing extracted command output, while preserving compatibility with pip-installed modules.