 			if(ASConfigFields.COMPILER_OPTIONS in configData)
 			{
 				var compilerOptions:Object = configData[ASConfigFields.COMPILER_OPTIONS];
+				if(this._forceDebug === true || this._forceDebug === false)
+				{
+					//ignore the debug option when it is specified on the
+					//command line
+					delete compilerOptions["debug"];
+					this._args.push("--debug=" + this._forceDebug);
+				}
 				this.readCompilerOptions(compilerOptions);
 				if(CompilerOptions.OUTPUT in compilerOptions)
 				{

			console.info(" -v, --version                       Print the version.");
			console.info(" -p DIRECTORY, --project DIRECTORY   Compile the asconfig.json project in the given directory. If omitted, will look for asconfig.json in current directory.");
			console.info(" --flexHome DIRECTORY                Specify the directory where Apache FlexJS, or another supported SDK, is located. If omitted, defaults to checking FLEX_HOME and PATH environment variables.");
		}

		private function parseArguments():void

						this._configFilePath = configFilePath;
						break;
					}
					case "debug":
					{
						//support both --debug=true or simply --debug
						var debugValue:Object = args[key];
						if(typeof debugValue === "string")
						{
							this._forceDebug = debugValue === "true";
						}
						else
						{
							this._forceDebug = debugValue as Boolean;
						}
						break;
					}
					case "v":
					case "version":
					{
