Getting the date of build of a .NET assembly at runtime

It can be useful to get the compilation date of an assembly. For instance, you can display it in addition to the version number: v1.2.3 built one day ago.

#Method 1: Linker timestamp

You can retrieve the embedded linker timestamp from the IMAGE_FILE_HEADER section of the Portable Executable header:

public static DateTime GetLinkerTimestampUtc(Assembly assembly)
{
    var location = assembly.Location;
    return GetLinkerTimestampUtc(location);
}

public static DateTime GetLinkerTimestampUtc(string filePath)
{
    const int peHeaderOffset = 60;
    const int linkerTimestampOffset = 8;
    var bytes = new byte[2048];

    using (var file = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
    {
        file.Read(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
    }

    var headerPos = BitConverter.ToInt32(bytes, peHeaderOffset);
    var secondsSince1970 = BitConverter.ToInt32(bytes, headerPos + linkerTimestampOffset);
    var dt = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);
    return dt.AddSeconds(secondsSince1970);
}

You can then get the build date using:

GetLinkerTimestampUtc(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());

#Method 2: AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute

Using the .NET SDK, you can use an MSBuild property to define the value of the AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute. So, you can inject the value of DateTime.UtcNow in the value of this attribute and then parse it at runtime to get the build date.

Open the csproj and add the following line:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  ...
  <PropertyGroup>
    <SourceRevisionId>build$([System.DateTime]::UtcNow.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss"))</SourceRevisionId>
  </PropertyGroup>
  ...
</Project>

The value of SourceRevisionId is added to the metadata section of the version (after the +). The value is of the following form: 1.2.3+build20180101120000

private static DateTime GetBuildDate(Assembly assembly)
{
    const string BuildVersionMetadataPrefix = "+build";

    var attribute = assembly.GetCustomAttribute<AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute>();
    if (attribute?.InformationalVersion != null)
    {
        var value = attribute.InformationalVersion;
        var index = value.IndexOf(BuildVersionMetadataPrefix);
        if (index > 0)
        {
            value = value.Substring(index + BuildVersionMetadataPrefix.Length);
            if (DateTime.TryParseExact(value, "yyyyMMddHHmmss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out var result))
            {
                return result;
            }
        }
    }

    return default;
}

You can then get the build date using:

GetBuildDate(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());

#Method 3: Using a custom Attribute

By looking at the target file that generates the AssemblyInfo.cs (C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.1.401\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.GenerateAssemblyInfo.targets), you can see that you can easily add other custom attributes to the file.

The target takes a parameter named AssemblyAttribute:

<WriteCodeFragment AssemblyAttributes="@(AssemblyAttribute)" Language="$(Language)" OutputFile="$(GeneratedAssemblyInfoFile)">
    <Output TaskParameter="OutputFile" ItemName="Compile" />
    <Output TaskParameter="OutputFile" ItemName="FileWrites" />
</WriteCodeFragment>

If you look at the file, you can see how they are declared:

<Target Name="GetAssemblyAttributes" DependsOnTargets="GetAssemblyVersion;AddSourceRevisionToInformationalVersion">
  <ItemGroup>
    <AssemblyAttribute Include="System.Reflection.AssemblyCompanyAttribute" Condition="'$(Company)' != '' and '$(GenerateAssemblyCompanyAttribute)' == 'true'">
      <_Parameter1>$(Company)</_Parameter1>
    </AssemblyAttribute>
    <AssemblyAttribute Include="System.Reflection.AssemblyConfigurationAttribute" Condition="'$(Configuration)' != '' and '$(GenerateAssemblyConfigurationAttribute)' == 'true'">
      <_Parameter1>$(Configuration)</_Parameter1>
    </AssemblyAttribute>
    ...
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

So, you can easily add a custom attribute. First, declare the attribute in your code:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Assembly)]
internal class BuildDateAttribute : Attribute
{
    public BuildDateAttribute(string value)
    {
        DateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(value, "yyyyMMddHHmmss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None);
    }

    public DateTime DateTime { get; }
}

Then, add the attribute declaration in the .csproj:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <AssemblyAttribute Include="BuildDateAttribute">
      <_Parameter1>$([System.DateTime]::UtcNow.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss"))</_Parameter1>
    </AssemblyAttribute>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

It will generate the following file under obj\Debug\netcoreapp2.1\BuildTime.AssemblyInfo.cs:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//     Runtime Version:4.0.30319.42000
//
//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
//     the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

using System;
using System.Reflection;

[assembly: BuildDateAttribute("20180901204042")] 👈
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyCompanyAttribute("Test")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyConfigurationAttribute("Debug")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyFileVersionAttribute("1.0.0.0")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute("1.0.0")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyProductAttribute("Test")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyTitleAttribute("Test")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersionAttribute("1.0.0.0")]

// Generated by the MSBuild WriteCodeFragment class.

Finally, you can get the build date using:

private static DateTime GetBuildDate(Assembly assembly)
{
    var attribute = assembly.GetCustomAttribute<BuildDateAttribute>();
    return attribute != null ? attribute.DateTime : default(DateTime);
}

#Conclusion

MSBuild is very powerful. The binary log allows you to understand how it works and customize the build as you want. So, you can find some easy ways to reach your goal. The latest way is the one I choose for my projects because the SourceRevisionId property may be set by other targets such as SourceLink.

Do you have a question or a suggestion about this post? Contact me!