C# projects, proper versioning, company, etc on deployment

Question

My company is working towards moving our development from C++.net into C#. Our product has standard monthly release (for instance, 5.0.19.2...).

In in C++.net, we had a common app.rc file, that standardized the company info, as well as version number. Since every project within the solution would include the same app.rc file once, it was very easy to change the version info on over 200 projects.

How does this solution translate into the C# world? The questions that I checked before writing this mention it through the property window in the solution explorer, but that is not what I want.

I know the assemblyinfo.cs contains the information I want to modify, but I don't think I could have one master file. Do I need to split it up into multiple files?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can add a file as a link instead of the actual file. E.g, my solution could be:

Solution
    - My Project
        - Properties
            - AssemblyInfo.cs
            - SharedAssemblyInfo.cs (Linked)
    - Solution Items
        - SharedAssemblyInfo.cs

When you add an existing item to the solution, you can use the drop down arrow on the Add link, and select Add as Link. The SharedAssemblyInfo.cs file can contain common/shared assembly attributes, e.g.:

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("2.0.*")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("2.0.0.0")]

[assembly: AssemblyCompany("My Company")]

... etc. The project local can contain project specific attributes:

[assembly: AssemblyTitle("My Assembly")]

... etc.

Answer 2

It's a common practice in c# solutions to comment out version information in the assemblyinfo.cs of each project and then have a single common "shared_assemblyinfo.cs" (named to taste) that contains version information and is shared across all projects...