How can I auto increment the C# assembly version via our CI platform (Hudson)?

Question

Here’s what I did, for stamping the AssemblyFileVersion attribute.

Removed the AssemblyFileVersion from AssemblyInfo.cs

Add a new, empty, file called AssemblyFileInfo.cs to the project.

Install the MSBuild community tasks toolset on the hudson build machine or as a NuGet dependency in your project.

Edit the project (csproj) file , it’s just an msbuild file, and add the following.

Somewhere there’ll be a <PropertyGroup> stating the version. Change that so it reads e.g.

 <Major>1</Major>
 <Minor>0</Minor>
 <!--Hudson sets BUILD_NUMBER and SVN_REVISION -->
 <Build>$(BUILD_NUMBER)</Build>
 <Revision>$(SVN_REVISION)</Revision>

Hudson provides those env variables you see there when the project is built on hudson (assuming it’s fetched from subversion).

At the bottom of the project file, add

 <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets')" />
  <Target Name="BeforeBuild" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets')">
    <Message Text="Version: $(Major).$(Minor).$(Build).$(Revision)" />
    <AssemblyInfo CodeLanguage="CS" OutputFile="AssemblyFileInfo.cs" AssemblyFileVersion="$(Major).$(Minor).$(Build).$(Revision)" AssemblyConfiguration="$(Configuration)" Condition="$(Revision) != '' " />
  </Target>

This uses the MSBuildCommunityTasks to generate the AssemblyFileVersion.cs to include an AssemblyFileVersion attribute before the project is built. You could do this for any/all of the version attributes if you want.

The result is, whenever you issue a hudson build, the resulting assembly gets an AssemblyFileVersion of 1.0.HUDSON_BUILD_NR.SVN_REVISION e.g. 1.0.6.2632 , which means the 6’th build # in hudson, buit from the subversion revision 2632.

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