I use git describe to get a version which either uses a tag or commit number. This usually gives nice versions like: v0.1-1-g787c667 if the tip of the branch has additional commits above the 'v0.1' tag.
The git command I use is: git describe --tags --always. I usually use it with the SCons build system and define it as a constant, relevant parts of the SConstruct:
import os, sys
from subprocess import *
def getGitDesc():
return Popen('git describe --tags --always', stdout=PIPE, shell=True).stdout.read ().strip ()
GIT_DESC = getGitDesc ()
print "Building " + getGitDesc () + ".."
env = Environment ()
# set up environment
env.Append (CPPDEFINES = { 'GIT_DESC' : ('\\"%s\\"' % GIT_DESC) } )
# build your program
env.Program (....)
In the C or C++ program I can now access GIT_DESC as a string-constant:
# include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main (int argc, char ** argv) {
cout << "Version: " << GIT_DESC << endl;
return 42;
}
note: the --abbrev=N argument to git describe might be useful to achieve consistent version output independent of a users git configuration.
