How to have an auto incrementing version number (Visual Studio)?

You could use the T4 templating mechanism in Visual Studio to generate the required source code from a simple text file :

I wanted to configure version information generation for some .NET projects. It’s been a long time since I investigated available options, so I searched around hoping to find some simple way of doing this. What I’ve found didn’t look very encouraging: people write Visual Studio add-ins and custom MsBuild tasks just to obtain one integer number (okay, maybe two). This felt overkill for a small personal project.

The inspiration came from one of the StackOverflow discussions where somebody suggested that T4 templates could do the job. And of course they can. The solution requires a minimal effort and no Visual Studio or build process customization. Here what should be done:

1. Create a file with extension ".tt" and place there T4 template that will generate AssemblyVersion and AssemblyFileVersion attributes:

<#@ template language="C#" #>
// 
// This code was generated by a tool. Any changes made manually will be lost
// the next time this code is regenerated.
// 

using System.Reflection;

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.1.<#= this.RevisionNumber #>")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.0.1.<#= this.RevisionNumber #>")]
<#+
    int RevisionNumber = (int)(DateTime.UtcNow - new DateTime(2010,1,1)).TotalDays;
#>

You will have to decide about version number generation algorithm. For me it was sufficient to auto-generate a revision number that is set to the number of days since January 1st, 2010. As you can see, the version generation rule is written in plain C#, so you can easily adjust it to your needs.

2. The file abov

This is my implementation of the T4 suggestion... This will increment the build number every time you build the project regardless of the selected configuration (i.e. Debug|Release), and it will increment the revision number every time you do a Release build. You can continue to update the major and minor version numbers through Application ➤ Assembly Information...

To explain in more detail, this will read the existing AssemblyInfo.cs file, and use regex to find the AssemblyVersion information and then increment the revision and build numbers based on input from TextTransform.exe.

1. Delete your existing AssemblyInfo.cs file.

2. Create a AssemblyInfo.tt file in its place. Visual Studio should create AssemblyInfo.cs and group it with the T4 file after you save the T4 file.

   <#@ template debug="true" hostspecific="true" language="C#" #>
   <#@ output extension=".cs" #>
   <#@ import namespace="System.IO" #>
   <#@ import namespace="System.Text.RegularExpressions" #>
   <#
       string output = File.ReadAllText(this.Host.ResolvePath("AssemblyInfo.cs"));
       Regex pattern = new Regex("AssemblyVersion\\(\"(?<major>\\d+)\\.(?<minor>\\d+)\\.(?<revision>\\d+)\\.(?<build>\\d+)\"\\)");
       MatchCollection matches = pattern.Matches(output);
       if( matches.Count == 1 )
       {
           major = Convert.ToInt32(matches[0].Groups["major"].Value);
           minor = Convert.ToInt32(matches[0].Groups["minor"].Value);
           build = Convert.ToInt32(matches[0].Groups["build"].Value) + 1;
           revision = Convert.ToInt32(matches[0].Groups["revision"].Value);
           if( this.Host.ResolveParameterValue("-","-","BuildConfiguration") == "Release" )
               revision++;
       }
   #>
   
   using System.Reflection;
   using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
   using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
   using System.Resource