The specified version string does not conform to the required format - major[.minor[.build[.revision]]]

Question

I want to append our application version with the build number. For example, 1.3.0.201606071.

When setting this in the AssemblyInfo, I get the following compilation error:

Error CS7034 The specified version string does not conform to the required format - major[.minor[.build[.revision]]]

Assembly info:

[assembly:System.Reflection.AssemblyFileVersionAttribute("1.0.0.201606071")]
[assembly:System.Reflection.AssemblyVersionAttribute("1.0.0.201606071")]
[assembly:System.Reflection.AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute("1.0.0.201606071")]

Why would this be happening?

Answer 1

The maximum value for either of the parts is 65534, as you read here. This is a limit imposed by the operating system, so not even specific to .NET. Windows puts the version numbers into two integers, which together form four unsigned shorts.

Adding some metadata to it (for the * option I guess) makes the maximum allowed value UInt16.MaxValue - 1 = 65534 (Thanks to Gary Walker for noticing):

All components of the version must be integers greater than or equal to 0. Metadata restricts the major, minor, build, and revision components for an assembly to a maximum value of UInt16.MaxValue - 1. If a component exceeds this value, a compilation error occurs.

Your 201606071 exceeds this limit.

Answer 2

If you are targeting netcoreapp2.0 and don't have AssemblyInfo.cs at all you can fix

error CS7034: The specified version string does not conform to the required format

by adding this into your .csproj file:

<PropertyGroup>
  <GenerateAssemblyInfo>False</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
  <Deterministic>False</Deterministic>
</PropertyGroup>

Answer 3

It's because each number in the version is a ushort! That's a pity.