Versioning a Native C/C++ Binary with Visual Studio

Last time in Mapping Binaries in the Field to Source Code in the Repository we talked about the value of including version information in your binaries. Today I’m going to explain how to accomplish this in Visual Studio for a native C/C++ binary. I’m using 2010 Professional, but it should work on other versions as well.

The source code is available here.

Step 1: Add a Version Resource

Right-click on your project
Select Add->Resource
Select Version
Click New

This will give you two files: resource.h and <project_name>.rc. I generally rename the .rc file to be version.rc

Step 2: Updating Version.rc

Out of the box the version.rc file will have you define the values right there. I recommend that you instead define the values in a version.h file and use those defines in the version.rc file.

Edit the resource file in a text editor:

In the Solution Explorer, Right-click on version.rc
Select Open With
Select C++ Source Code Editor
Scroll down to the Version section

Here is a template Version section that I frequently use (and will build on below):

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// 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

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. Here’s the information I generally start with mine:


#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

Step 4: Add the Necessary Include

The final step is to add the necessary include line to the version.rc file for the version.h file:

// Microsoft Visual C++ generated resource script.
//
#include "resource.h"
#include "version.h"

#define APSTUDIO_READONLY_SYMBOLS

Results

Now when you build your application, all the version info above will be defined in the binary itself. Much of this information is available directly from the Details pane of the Properties window in Explorer.

Version Info

Final Thoughts

Note that this information is static from build to build. You must change the version numbering yourself or use a script to auto-increment values. I’ll be discussing how to make the BUILD number automatically correspond to the revision info from the working copy of the source code using Mercurial or Subversion in an upcoming post.