Msbuild get file version

This makes it easy to create a new project file using Visual Studio. In this section, you create a Visual C project file. You can choose to create a Visual Basic project file instead. In the context of this walkthrough, the difference between the two project files is minor. In the search box, type winforms , then choose Create a new Windows Forms App.

NET Framework. In the dialog box that appears, choose Create. In the Project name box, type BuildApp. Then choose OK.

In the Name box, type BuildApp. In the previous section, you used Visual Studio to create a Visual C project file. The project file is represented in Solution Explorer by the project node named BuildApp. You can use the Visual Studio code editor to examine the project file. All project files are named with the suffix proj. If you had created a Visual Basic project, the project file name would be BuildApp. Project files are XML-formatted files with the root node Project.

If the project is not an SDK-style project, you must specify the xmlns namespace in the Project element. If you don't know the MSBuild version, you can get it from the first two numbers from the output of the following command line for example, The work of building an application is done with Target and Task elements.

A task is the smallest unit of work, in other words, the "atom" of a build. Tasks are independent executable components which may have inputs and outputs. There are no tasks currently referenced or defined in the project file. You add tasks to the project file in the sections below. For more information, see the Tasks topic. A target is a named sequence of tasks. For more information, see the Targets topic.

The default target is not defined in the project file. Instead, it is specified in imported projects. The Import element specifies imported projects. For example, in a C project, the default target is imported from the file Microsoft.

In SDK-style projects, you don't see this import element, since the SDK attribute causes this file to be imported implicitly. MSBuild keeps track of the targets of a build, and guarantees that each target is built no more than once. Add these lines to the project file, just after the Import statement or the opening Project element.

Msi files are essentially databases and ProductVersion is an entry in that database; they have no FileVersion attribute to set. The method he suggests correctly sets ProductVersion in the.

The title of this question is now not really related to what the problem I actually had was, since I was asking for a solution I believed I needed at the time. I've now solved the root problem which was simply getting access to the ProductVersion of the installer.

Using that has allowed me to extract the ProductVersion and use it in other tools. An easier solution, if you don't need the version in MSBuild, is to just reference the version of the file directly in your. Here's a snippet that shows what to do:. The magic is that the! This is far away the easiest way to get the version of the file into your MSI package. I needed the file version one time, and I ended up writing a custom task to get the FileVersion because I couldn't find anything.

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Learn more. Asked 8 years, 9 months ago. Active 8 years, 9 months ago. Viewed 5k times. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest. Improve this question. Community Bot 1 1 1 silver badge. Alex Alex 6 6 silver badges 21 21 bronze badges. Would using a preprocessor extension to grab the file version be out of the question? What version of the WiX toolset are you using? I'm using version 3.

Add a comment. The following example specifies that the project should be built by using the MSBuild Some project types use the sdk attribute instead of ToolsVersion. For more information, see Additions to the csproj format for. NET Core. When you create a project in Visual Studio, or upgrade an existing project, an attribute named ToolsVersion is automatically included in the project file and its value corresponds to the version of MSBuild that is included in the Visual Studio edition.

For more information, see Framework targeting overview. When a ToolsVersion value is defined in a project file, MSBuild uses that value to determine the values of the Toolset properties that are available to the project. NET Framework tools. MSBuild defaults to this Toolset within Visual Studio and on the command line, regardless of the Toolset version specified in the project file.

This behavior can be overridden by using the -ToolsVersion flag. For more information, see Override ToolsVersion settings.

In the following example, MSBuild finds the Microsoft. For more information, see Standard and custom Toolset configurations. When you build a solution on the command line and specify a ToolsVersion for msbuild. The ToolsVersion attribute is also used for project migration.

If you then try to open that project in Visual Studio , it doesn't recognize the upgraded ToolsVersion and therefore builds the project as though the attribute was still set to 3.

However, this had a serious downside it locked the Assembly for the duration of the build!. This line retrieves the assemblies name object version, public key, etc, etc without actually loading the assembly into the AppDomain, hence — no locking! MikeFourie on Twitter has pointed out that the file locking issue was fixed in 3. I've been using the venerable, antiquated 3. You're using what? Well, it's part of our established build environment I'll look into upgrading.