I have seen most of the posts on auto incrementing build numbers recommending some external plugins. However, working for a corporate environment its hard to rely on any external add-on or plugins which are not signed and authorized. It took me some time to search around to get an auto incrementing build numbers and eventually couldn't find a decent post. This post will help in writing your own build increment tools. Although it looks sluggish in implementation ( as I tweaked some other tutorial), I would prefer doing this rather than relying on external add-on.
Alright, lets get started. I believe that it works on most of the visual studio versions. Just as formal post introduction, I have used Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 and python 2.7 for this exercise.
Step:1 Add a version resource.
1.1. Open solution explorer and right click on Resource Files.
1.2. Select Add ->Resource->Version and click New.
1.3. This will create a new VS_VERSION_INFO file, specific to project.
1.4. Incase, you want to access it later, expand the Resource Files folder, double click on <project-name.rc> file. Expand Version folder. It will contain VS_VERSION_INFO file. Doble click to open it.
Step:2 Updating Resource File
Now that we have created a version resource. It now time to edit the file to our requirements.
2.1.Locate Resource Files section in the <Project-Name>. Expand the folder to find the <project-name.rc> file. Right click on the <project-name.rc> file and open with C++ source code Editor.
2.2. Identify the following code in the file to locate version information. (~line 47)
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Version
//
VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO
FILEVERSION 1,0,0,1
PRODUCTVERSION 1,0,0,1
FILEFLAGSMASK 0x3fL
#ifdef _DEBUG
FILEFLAGS 0x1L
#else
FILEFLAGS 0x0L
#endif
FILEOS 0x40004L
FILETYPE 0x1L
FILESUBTYPE 0x0L
BEGIN
BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
BEGIN
BLOCK "040904b0"
BEGIN
VALUE "CompanyName", "TODO: <Company name>"
VALUE "FileDescription", "TODO: <File description>"
VALUE "FileVersion", "1.0.0.1"
VALUE "InternalName", "project-name.exe"
VALUE "LegalCopyright", "Copyright (C) 2014"
VALUE "OriginalFilename", "project-name.exe"
VALUE "ProductName", "TODO: <Product name>"
VALUE "ProductVersion", "1.0.0.1"
END
END
BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
BEGIN
VALUE "Translation", 0x409, 1200
END
END
Comment out this part of the code using multi line comments and paste the following code instead.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Version
//
VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO
FILEVERSION VER_FILE_VERSION
PRODUCTVERSION VER_PRODUCT_VERSION
FILEFLAGSMASK 0x3fL
FILEFLAGS VER_FILEFLAGS
FILEOS VER_FILEOS
FILETYPE VER_FILETYPE
FILESUBTYPE 0x0L
BEGIN
BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
BEGIN
BLOCK "040904b0"
BEGIN
VALUE "FileDescription", VER_FILE_DESCRIPTION_STR "\0"
VALUE "FileVersion", VER_FILE_VERSION_STR "\0"
VALUE "InternalName", VER_INTERNAL_NAME_STR "\0"
VALUE "LegalCopyright", VER_COPYRIGHT_STR "\0"
VALUE "OriginalFilename", VER_ORIGINAL_FILENAME_STR "\0"
VALUE "ProductName", VER_PRODUCTNAME_STR
VALUE "ProductVersion", VER_PRODUCT_VERSION_STR "\0"
END
END
BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
BEGIN
VALUE "Translation", 0x409, 1200
END
END
This piece will use a version.h header file to fetch the information dynamically. The next section deals with constructing appropriate version.h file.
Step 3: Adding a Version Header
Next we create a file named version.h to provide a more convenient location to set the various version information. This is especially useful if you are sharing version information across multiple projects in a single solution.
3.1 How to create a version.h file?
To create version.h Header file, right click on the Header Files Folder in the solution explorer.
select Add-> New Item -> Header File (.h)
Give the name as version.h and click add. This will put the version.h file in the Header files folder.
Now that we have version.h file. Open the file and paste the following code there.
#define STRINGIZE2(s) #s
#define STRINGIZE(s) STRINGIZE2(s)
#define VERSION_MAJOR 1
#define VERSION_MINOR 0
#define VERSION_REVISION 0
#define VERSION_BUILD 0
#define VER_FILE_DESCRIPTION_STR "Description"
#define VER_FILE_VERSION VERSION_MAJOR, VERSION_MINOR, VERSION_REVISION, VERSION_BUILD
#define VER_FILE_VERSION_STR STRINGIZE(VERSION_MAJOR) \
"." STRINGIZE(VERSION_MINOR) \
"." STRINGIZE(VERSION_REVISION) \
"." STRINGIZE(VERSION_BUILD) \
#define VER_PRODUCTNAME_STR "c_version_binary"
#define VER_PRODUCT_VERSION VER_FILE_VERSION
#define VER_PRODUCT_VERSION_STR VER_FILE_VERSION_STR
#define VER_ORIGINAL_FILENAME_STR VER_PRODUCTNAME_STR ".exe"
#define VER_INTERNAL_NAME_STR VER_ORIGINAL_FILENAME_STR
#define VER_COPYRIGHT_STR "Copyright (C) 2011"
#ifdef _DEBUG
#define VER_VER_DEBUG VS_FF_DEBUG
#else
#define VER_VER_DEBUG 0
#endif
#define VER_FILEOS VOS_NT_WINDOWS32
#define VER_FILEFLAGS VER_VER_DEBUG
#define VER_FILETYPE VFT_APP
For now, the version information starts with 1.0.0.0 (manor, minor,build and revision). One can feel free to change it according to their requirements.
Step 4: Add Includes
The final step is to add the necessary include line to the <project-name>.rc file for the version.h file. ( see step 2 and point 1, on how to edit the <project-name>.rc file)
// Microsoft Visual C++ generated resource script.
//
#include "resource.h"
#include "version.h"
#define APSTUDIO_READONLY_SYMBOLS
|
Now that we are done with arranging the necessary files, just try to build the project. You have to see the version information used in the version.h file, instead of information used in the VS_VERSION_INFO file ( for instance, see in the details section of build exe properties). After this, its just writing a script to control the version.h file for auto increment of build numbers.
Note:
Error 1 error RC1004: unexpected end of file found
C:\<project-name>\version.h 32
Incase , if you see this error. Add a new line at the end of the version.h file.
Step 5: Auto Incrementing the Build Numbers.
Follow the step 3.1 to create a header file Build_Increment.h in the Header Files folder section. Open the Build_increment.h Header file and paste the following code and close it. (This file can be later used to print the SVN numbers).
#ifndef _SVN_VERSION_H_
#define _SVN_VERSION_H_
#define SVN_LOCAL_MODIFICATIONS $WCMODS?1:0$ // 1 if there are modifications to the local working copy, 0 otherwise
#define SVN_REVISION $WCREV$ // Highest committed revision number in the working copy
#define SVN_TIME_NOW $WCNOW$ // Current system date & time
#define BUILD_INCREMENT 0
#endif
This is used as header include in the version.h file. A python (2.7) script is used to increment the build number every time in the Build_increment.h header file.
Now that we have the Build_Increment.h File. place this in the header section of the version.h file.
#include "Build_Increment.h"
#define STRINGIZE2(s) #s
#define STRINGIZE(s) STRINGIZE2(s)
After adding the header file, modify the version major, minor, build and revision defines as per your taste.
#define VERSION_MAJOR 2
#define VERSION_MINOR 5
#define VERSION_REVISION 0
#define VERSION_BUILD BUILD_INCREMENT
Now that, I want VERSION_BUILD to increment every time, I used the BUILD_INCREMENT macro from the Build_Increment.h file. If someone wants VERSION_REVISION to be incremented every time, place the BUILD_INCREMENT macro instead of 0.
Now, go to your visual studio project folder. Create a new file called BuildIncrementer.py and paste the following code there and save it.
import string
# Open a file
fo = open("Build_Increment.h", "r+")
print "Name of the file: ", fo.name
line = fo.readlines()
for idx, item in enumerate(line):
if 'BUILD_INCREMENT' in item:
tmp_str = item.split();
tmp_str[2] = str(int(tmp_str[2])+1)+"\n";
item = ' '.join(tmp_str);
#print item;
line[idx] = item;
fo.seek(0)
for idx, item in enumerate(line):
fo.write(item)
fo.truncate()
# Close opend file
fo.close()
This script will increment the build number every time it runs. so, we will call this script as a pre build event.
Step 6: Configure pre-Build event.
To configure this script in the pre build event. Goto Debug>Project properties>Build Events >pre Build Events> Command Line.
In the command line, enter the following command
python $(ProjectDir)\Build_Incrementer.py
and apply it.
Now, try to Build the project. See the BUILD_INCREMENT macro in the Build_Increment.h file. It should keep incrementing for every build.
To verify that, Right click and select properties of the Build Exe. Navigate to Details tab. See information about the version. One can pull this build information into their code using this link.
References
Versioning a Native C/C++ Binary with Visual Studio | Zach Burlingame
