Specify assembly version number as a command line argument in MSBuild

Question

I would like to be able to specify the version number for all assemblies to be generated during a build as a MSBuild command argument like this:

MSBuild.exe          


        

Answer 1

I use the AssemblyInfo task as you describe in your comment all the time.

  <!-- update standard assembly attribute in all projects -->
  <Target Name="BeforeBuild" >
    <Message Text="Updating AssemblyInfo to Version $(VersionNumber)"></Message>
    <Message Text="Writing to AssemblyInfo files in $(SolutionRoot)"></Message>
    <AssemblyInfo AssemblyInfoFiles="@(AssemblyInfoFiles)" 
                  AssemblyCopyright="$(AssemblyCopyright)" 
                  AssemblyVersion="$(VersionNumber)"
                  AssemblyFileVersion="$(VersionNumber)"
                  >
    </AssemblyInfo>
  </Target>

The VersionNumber value is passed from outside the MSBuild project file exactly as you describe:

  MSBuild <project_file> /p:VersionNumber=<value>;...

We use the BeforeBuild target to ensure the AssemblyInfo.cs files all get worked on before the build starts. Is this not what you want?

Answer 2

For SDK-style projects that are built using dotnet.exe, assembly version attributes are generated automatically, so you can use /p:Version=5.4.3.0 right out of the box.

If you use the old project format, you need to add the following BeforeBuild step to your .csproj file. No need to use extra .targets and extension packs, because MSBuild already has a nice built-in task which does most of the stuff:

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
  <ItemGroup>
    <AssemblyAttributes Include="AssemblyVersion">
      <_Parameter1>$(Version)</_Parameter1>
    </AssemblyAttributes>
  </ItemGroup>
  <MakeDir Directories="$(IntermediateOutputPath)" />
  <WriteCodeFragment Language="C#"
                     OutputFile="$(IntermediateOutputPath)Version.cs"
                     AssemblyAttributes="@(AssemblyAttributes)" />
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)Version.cs" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

Just make sure you remove the existing AssemblyVersion attribute because it will now be generated during build.

Update 7/29/2020: Michael Parker has pointed out that if you use this approach and do a build from Visual Studio, you end up with an empty version in the Version.cs file. To overcome this, I suggest defining the default Version value in your .csproj file as follows:

<PropertyGroup>
  ...
  <Version Condition="'$(Version)' == ''">1.0.0.0</Version>
</PropertyGroup>

This will set it to 1.0.0.0 if Version wasn't specified in the command line.

Answer 3

I know this is an old question but Google leads me to here as top result.

I followed a simple solution in this. No need for extension pack.

Basically what you need to do is add a "BuildCommon.targets" files and modify your csproj file accordingly to have the version number specified in msbuild like:

msbuild.exe abc.sln /p:Configuration=Release;VersionAssembly=1.2.3.4

Hope this helps.