Aligning assembly version numbers with TFS Buildnumber

Question

I am wondering if there is a way to synchronize the build numbers (20080213.1) without using the BuildNumberOverrideTarget where I would have to generate my own build number? I basically want to use the default/built-in tfs buildnumber generator but want to access it to align my assembly versions with it. Can this be done and is it a sensible way to do it this way?

Answer 1

Yes you can. At some point, possibly at AfterGet, you can use the BuildNumber and create a custom task to update the AssemblyInfo.cs files in your source code.

We've hooked into AfterGet and caused our target to be dependant:

<Target Name="AfterGet" DependsOnTargets="VersionAssemblies" />

Our VersionAssemblies Target pulls all of the AssemblyInfo.cs files from $(SolutionRoot):

<CreateItem Include="$(SolutionRoot)\**\AssemblyInfo.cs;">
    <Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="AssemblyInfos"/>
 </CreateItem>

checks them out:

<Exec Command="$(TfCommand) checkout &quot;AssemblyInfo.cs&quot; -r"
          WorkingDirectory="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\sources" ContinueOnError="true"/>

edits them and replaces the file version with the $(BuildNumber):

<File.Replace Path="%(AssemblyInfos.FullPath)"
                  NewValue="AssemblyFileVersion(&quot;$(BuildNumber)&quot;)"
                  RegularExpression="AssemblyFileVersion\(\&quot;(\d+.\d+.\d+.\d+)\&quot;\)"
                  IgnoreCase="true"
                  Force="true"/>

and then checks the files back in:

<Exec Command="$(TfCommand) checkin /override:&quot;Automated&quot; /comment:&quot;Update AssemblyInfo files to version number $(BuildNumber) - $(NoCICheckinComment) &quot; /noprompt &quot;AssemblyInfo.cs&quot; /recursive"
          WorkingDirectory="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\sources" ContinueOnError="false"/>

For the replacement of the file versions I use the File.Replace task that comes with the Microsoft SDC tasks on CodePlex.

Also note, that if you have a build that is triggered on a checkin, when checking in the AssemblyInfo.cs files, make sure the comment includes $(NoCICheckinComment) as this causes TFS not to trigger another build otherwise you'll end up in an infinite build loop.

Answer 2

What you are asking for is very sensible and there are a number of ways to achieve this.

Personally, when I do this I don't like to check the files in to version control that have the build server generated number in them - it just introduces too many head-aches when merging code across branches but also I like a known version number to be used when a developer does a workstation build vs a proper build server derived assembly to make it really easy to tell them apart.

For more information on how I like to do it, take a look at the TFS Build Recipies wiki:

• TFS Build: Assembly Versioning

or my blog post on the topic

• Martin Woodward: Aligning Build Numbers with Assembly Versions

Hope that helps,

Martin.