How to configure build numbers in Visual Studio to enable dll comparison

Question

I am building a C# solution in Visual Studio 2008 that has several projects and project dependencies.
I am looking for a way to change dll version numbers ONLY when the code that builds the project changes.

I currently use Beyond Compare to compare my locally built version to the production file system. The goal is to ONLY deploy updated dlls. I am using autoincrementing version numbers, and each time you open visual studio and do a build, all dll version numbers increment. The same goes for a full solution rebuild and when a different developer does a build and tries to deploy.

Is there a way that i can configure Visual Studio to ONLY increment the build number based on changed file contents? Is there an add in that will do this?

It seems a binary comparison of these files will also fail because of the different version numbers within the dlls. Does anyone know of a better tool compare only the contents of dlls?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

One option is to move to a continuous integration solution such as Cruise Control .Net this allows builds to be triggered on check in to a source control system.

Regarding assembly versioning what I usually do is create a single SolutionVersion.cs (to replace the default assembly version cs) that is linked to each project (use the add existing item but change the button to add as link)

Then I use a NAnt or MSBuild task to take the cruise control build label number and overwrite the SolutionVersion.cs verison numbers before the solution gets built

That way I can take an assembly and trace it back to the code via CruiseControl build version (even better I usually get CC.net to label the source with the same number in source control)