diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index aa432355c797108935b510bed2a96f4476f2f203..d1bec7b23c456b3a916527259d32ab4239e82278 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -92,3 +92,5 @@ LOG
 
 .shell-history
 PACKAGE
+scripts/py_utils/*.pyc
+cmake-build-debug
diff --git a/run.sh b/run.sh
index 95f4aa67d7a4415289dd934e6891a5c4aa8abdec..e8feba790f3e53299ed3488091df0cab2515f12b 100755
--- a/run.sh
+++ b/run.sh
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ function run_build()
     if [ "$BUILD_TYPE" == "debug" ]
     then
         echo "BUILD_TYPE=debug"
-        CMAKE_OPTIONS="$CMAKE_OPTIONS -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug"
+        CMAKE_OPTIONS="$CMAKE_OPTIONS -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo"
     else
         echo "BUILD_TYPE=release"
     fi
diff --git a/scripts/create_table.py b/scripts/create_table.py
index e4173f761e182fe948ac452ce0dcfb8a4fd56226..a7f09a3ddf546c1b9d66a33cc6089436000b480f 100755
--- a/scripts/create_table.py
+++ b/scripts/create_table.py
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ def set_write_throttling_if_needed(cluster, table, new_throttle):
 def set_app_envs_if_needed(cluster, table, env_name, new_env_value):
     py_utils.echo("New value of {}={}".format(env_name, new_env_value))
     envs = cluster.get_app_envs(table)
-    if envs is not None:
+    if envs is not None and envs.get(env_name) is not None:
         old_env_value = envs.get(env_name).encode('utf-8')
         if old_env_value is not None:
             py_utils.echo("Old value of {}={}".format(env_name, old_env_value))