Can I automatically increment the file build versi

Question

I was just wondering how I could automatically increment the build (and version?) of my files using Visual Studio (2005).

If I look up the properties of say C:\Windows\notepad.exe, the Version tab gives "File version: 5.1.2600.2180". I would like to get these cool numbers in the version of my dll's too, not version 1.0.0.0, which let's face it is a bit dull.

I tried a few things, but it doesn't seem to be out-of-box functionality, or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place (as usual).

I work with mainly web projects....

I looked at both:

1. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/Auto_Increment_Version.aspx
2. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/build_versioning.aspx

and I couldn't believe it so much effort to do something is standard practice.

EDIT: It does not work in VS2005 as far I can tell (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/AutoIncrementVersion.aspx)

Answer 1

As of right now, for my application,

string ver = Application.ProductVersion;

returns ver = 1.0.3251.27860

The value 3251 is the number of days since 1/1/2000. I use it to put a version creation date on the splash screen of my application. When dealing with a user, I can ask the creation date which is easier to communicate than some long number.

(I'm a one-man dept supporting a small company. This approach may not work for you.)

Answer 2

Changing the AssemblyInfo works in VS2012. It seems strange that there's not more support for this in Visual Studio, you'd think this was a basic part of the build/release process.

Answer 3

AssemblyInfoUtil. Free. Open-source.

Answer 4

To get incrementing (DateTime) information into the AssemblyFileVersion property which has the advantage of not breaking any dependencies.

---

Building on Boog's solution (did not work for me, maybe because of VS2008?), you can use a combination of a pre-build event generating a file, adding that file (including its version properties) and then using a way to read out those values again. That is..

Pre-Build-Event:

echo [assembly:System.Reflection.AssemblyFileVersion("%date:~-4,4%.%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%.%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%.%time:~-5,2%")] > $(ProjectDir)Properties\VersionInfo.cs

Include the resulting VersionInfo.cs file (Properties subfolder) into your project

Code to get Date back (years down to seconds):

var version = assembly.GetName().Version;
var fileVersionString = System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(assembly.Location).FileVersion;
Version fileVersion = new Version(fileVersionString);
var buildDateTime = new DateTime(fileVersion.Major, fileVersion.Minor/100, fileVersion.Minor%100, fileVersion.Build/100, fileVersion.Build%100, fileVersion.Revision);

Not very comfortable.. also, I do not know if it creates a lot of force-rebuilds (since a file always changes).

You could make it smarter for example if you only update the VersionInfo.cs file every few minutes/hours (by using a temporary file and then copying/overwriting the real VersionInfo.cs if a change large enough is detected). I did this once pretty successfully.

Answer 5

Maybe, for this task, you can use code like this:

    private bool IncreaseFileVersionBuild()
    {
        if (System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached)
        {
            try
            {
                var fi = new DirectoryInfo(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory).Parent.Parent.GetDirectories("Properties")[0].GetFiles("AssemblyInfo.cs")[0];
                var ve = System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
                string ol = ve.FileMajorPart.ToString() + "." + ve.FileMinorPart.ToString() + "." + ve.FileBuildPart.ToString() + "." + ve.FilePrivatePart.ToString();
                string ne = ve.FileMajorPart.ToString() + "." + ve.FileMinorPart.ToString() + "." + (ve.FileBuildPart + 1).ToString() + "." + ve.FilePrivatePart.ToString();
                System.IO.File.WriteAllText(fi.FullName, System.IO.File.ReadAllText(fi.FullName).Replace("[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion(\"" + ol + "\")]", "[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion(\"" + ne + "\")]"));
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

and call it from form loading.
With this code you can update any part of file info in AssemblyInfo.cs (but you must use "standard" directory structure).