Knowledge Base

How to increment version information after each build in Visual C++

Article ID: 237870

Article Last Modified on 9/2/2005

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q237870

SUMMARY

Visual C++ doesn't have a feature to automatically increment the version resource information of your project after each build. This article describes one way to provide such a feature.

MORE INFORMATION

You can write a program to modify the resource compiler (.rc) file instead of using the steps described here. However, the RC file is under the control of Visual C++. Visual C++ modifies the RC file while saving, and this may affect the version resource. The approach described in this section can be applied to any Visual C++ project. This example uses a Microsoft Foundation Classes project.

Create a new project using the MFC (EXE) Appwizard and call it MyProject. MyProject will have a MyProject.rc file, which includes MyProject.rc2. The .rc2 file is meant for user-defined resources. Follow these steps to increment MyProject's version information after each build:

Remove the version resource from the .rc file and place it in the .rc2 file:

Open both MyProject.rc and MyProject.rc2 (found in the Res folder), in a text editor. To use the Visual C++ editor, click Open on the File menu and select Text in the Open As list for the MyProject.rc file.

Find the version resource statements in MyProject.rc. It should look something like:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
// 
// 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 0x4L
 FILETYPE 0x1L
 FILESUBTYPE 0x0L
BEGIN
    BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
    BEGIN
        BLOCK "040904b0"
        BEGIN
            VALUE "Comments", "Sample Application\0"
            VALUE "CompanyName", "Microsoft Corp.\0"
            VALUE "FileDescription", "MyProject MFC Application\0"
            VALUE "FileVersion", "1, 0, 0, 1\0"
            VALUE "InternalName", "MyProject\0"
            VALUE "LegalCopyright", "Copyright (C) 1999\0"
            VALUE "OriginalFilename", "MyProject.EXE\0"
            VALUE "ProductName", "MyProject Application\0"
            VALUE "ProductVersion", "1, 0, 0, 1\0"
        END
    END
    BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
    BEGIN
        VALUE "Translation", 0x409, 1200
    END
END

Cut the version resource from the MyProject.rc file and paste it into the MyProject.rc2 file below the comment "Add manually edited resources here." For information about what each one of the fields in the resource means, see the VERSIONINFO resource statement in Help.

Replace the FILEVERSION and PRODUCTVERSION data with macros FILEVER and PRODUCTVER. Similarly, replace the FileVersion and ProductVersion string data with the macros STRFILEVER and STRPRODUCTVER.

Add a #include VersionNo.h immediately before the VS_VERSION_INFO resource statement. Now the version resource will look like:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
// 
// Version
// 
#include "VersionNo.h"
VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO
 FILEVERSION FILEVER
 PRODUCTVERSION PRODUCTVER
 FILEFLAGSMASK 0x3fL
#ifdef _DEBUG
 FILEFLAGS 0x1L
#else
 FILEFLAGS 0x0L
#endif
 FILEOS 0x4L
 FILETYPE 0x1L
 FILESUBTYPE 0x0L
BEGIN
    BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
    BEGIN
        BLOCK "040904b0"
        BEGIN
            VALUE "Comments", "Sample Application\0"
            VALUE "CompanyName", "Microsoft Corp.\0"
            VALUE "FileDescription", "MyProject MFC Application\0"
            VALUE "FileVersion", STRFILEVER
            VALUE "InternalName", "MyProject\0"
            VALUE "LegalCopyright", "Copyright (C) 1997\0"
            VALUE "OriginalFilename", "MyProject.EXE\0"
            VALUE "ProductName", "MyProject Application\0"
            VALUE "ProductVersion", STRPRODUCTVER
        END
    END
    BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
    BEGIN
        VALUE "Translation", 0x409, 1200
    END
END

Create a header file called VersionNo.h in the same directory as your project. This file will contain the following statements, which are the definitions for macros used in step 2:
```
#define FILEVER        1,0,0,1
#define PRODUCTVER     1,0,0,1
#define STRFILEVER     "1, 0, 0, 1\0"
#define STRPRODUCTVER  "1, 0, 0, 1\0"
                        
```
NOTE: Add linefeed and carriage return characters on the last line.

Now, MyProject.rc file includes MyProject.rc2, and MyProject.rc2 file includes VersionNo.h.

The VersionNo.h file contents will be modified using a Visual Basic Script macro. The macro described below handles the Visual C++ BuildFinish event, so it will not be fired until a build completes. Whenever this VB Script code is called, it first increments the version numbers inside the header file by a fixed amount, then it saves the file and closes it. During a subsequent build, the new version number is included in the executable.

To install and use the VB Script code, do the following:

Open an existing DSM (macro) file or create a new DSM file in Visual C++. To create a new file, click New on the File menu, select Macro File on the Files tab, give it a name, and click OK.

Paste the following VB Script code below (an empty DSM file cannot be installed in Visual C++; the next step explains installing):

Function GetProjectDir(FullName)

'VC++ doesn't provide any method for getting the path of the active project
'See the VB Script reference for more information on the VB Script functions 
'used in this function

Dim proj_path
proj_path = Split(StrReverse(FullName),"\",-1,1)

Dim count
count = UBound(proj_path)

Dim full_path
full_path = ""
Dim i

for i = 1 to count 
    full_path = full_path & "\" & proj_path(i)
next

GetProjectDir = StrReverse(full_path)

End Function


Sub ReplaceText(selection, count, incrementby)

'selection represents the TextSelection object
'count represents the position of the version number to be incremented
'incrementby represents a number that will be added to the existing version number

selection.WordRight dsMove, count
selection.WordRight dsExtend, 1
Dim str
str = selection.Text
str = str + incrementby

selection.Text = str

End Sub


Sub Application_BuildFinish(numError, numWarning)

'This event will be triggered after every build of a project
'You can check numError and/or numWarning to determine if you want to continue
'If numError <> 0 Then
    'exit sub
'Obtain the full path of the active project
Dim full_path
full_path = GetProjectDir(ActiveProject.FullName)

full_path = full_path & "versionno.h"

'Open the VersionNo.h file
Documents.Open full_path

'Obtain the TextSelection object
Dim selection
set selection = ActiveDocument.Selection
selection.StartOfDocument 

'Increment the version information
ReplaceText selection, 9, 1
selection.LineDown
selection.StartOfLine
ReplaceText selection, 9, 1
selection.LineDown
selection.StartOfLine
ReplaceText selection, 10, 1
selection.LineDown
selection.StartOfLine
ReplaceText selection, 10, 1

ActiveDocument.Save
ActiveDocument.Close
 
End Sub

NOTE: This code is an unsupported sample. You may modify it for your build scenario.

Install the DSM file if it is not already installed. To install, click Customize on the Tools menu, click the Add-in and Macro Files tab, browse to select the DSM file, and click Close.

Select Build MyProject.exe from the Build menu. After the build finishes, open the VersionNo.h file. It will contain the following statements:
```
#define FILEVER        1,0,0,2
#define PRODUCTVER     1,0,0,2
#define STRFILEVER     "1, 0, 0, 2\0"
#define STRPRODUCTVER  "1, 0, 0, 2\0"
                        
```
If you build the code again, this version information in included in the executable, and the version information is incremented. You can introduce some code in the macro described earlier to prevent incrementing version numbers if the build produced errors.

REFERENCES

For more information on the Visual C++ object model see the following topic in the MSDN library:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vcug98/html/_asug_home_page.3a_.developer_studio_objects.asp

For more information on VB Script macros, see the following topic in the MSDN library:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vcug98/html/_asug_home_page.3a_.vbscript_macros.asp

For more information on VB Script language, see the following topic in the MSDN library:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/script56/html/vbscripttoc.asp

For more information on the Visual C++ VERSIONINFO resource statement, see the following topic in the MSDN library:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/tools/tools/resource_definition_statements.asp

Keywords: kbhowto kbscript kbvcobj kbide kbautomation kbdevstudio KB237870

Microsoft KB Archive/237870

Contents

How to increment version information after each build in Visual C++

SUMMARY

MORE INFORMATION

REFERENCES