Add Version number to a generic file in Windows

Question

Last Edit: A Version number cannot be added to a generic file in Windows.

Versioning in Windows comes from a VERSIONINFO resource attached to a binary executable file such as .EXE or .DLL. This resource cannot be attached to any arbitrary file and it is not part of any Alternate Data Stream.

I had thought that the version info was stored in an Alternate Data Stream, but it is not.

Is there a way to add a program version number to the meta-data for a file in Windows that is not an executable or dll? We have a linux app. that will be stored on a Windows server and copied to Linux computers when the version changes.

Edit: I would like to Add versioning info to the file, which is kept in an Alternate File stream for the file.

I would like to write a version number to the meta data so that it could be read from a program using a method similar to this:

string fullPath = "folder_name" + "\\" + "linux_app_name";
if (File.Exists(fullPath))
{
    FileAttributes fileAttributes = File.GetAttributes(fullPath);
    FileVersionInfo verInfo = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(fullPath);
    // todo: add version info to the file.
    textBox1.AppendText("File name:\t" + Path.GetFileName(verInfo.FileName) + '\n');
    textBox1.AppendText("Version Info:\t");         
    if (verInfo.FileVersion != null)
    {
        textBox1.AppendText(verInfo.FileVersion);
    }
    else
    {
        textBox1.AppendText("No Version info.");
    }
}

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Unclear: are you on windows or linux? On Windows there is no such meta-data for files other than executables, as I know. https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/debug/pe-format & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Executable — , Oct 24 '19 at 16:08
The program is a Linux file, its not a PE of any kind. This file is stored in a Windows folder. I want to add a version to the Alternate file stream where versioning info is kept. — netcat, Oct 24 '19 at 18:10
So you need to use a database or an associated description file like `[FilenameWithExtension].meta` and handle this behavior. — , Oct 24 '19 at 18:14
Does this help? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/604960/ntfs-alternate-data-streams-net — Klaus Gütter, Oct 24 '19 at 18:54
Thanks for the replies. I was looking to open the alternate file stream and write in a version number. The link Klaus G. shared shows this method and it works. I will study the structure to add versioning. — netcat, Oct 25 '19 at 03:40
Thanks for the helpful info Oliver. We will be storing the version number in a separate file. — netcat, Nov 01 '19 at 19:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 01 '19 at 19:10

I'm posting this answer in case someone else is looking for a way to add versioning to an arbitrary file in Windows that's not a Windows program file.

You can't.

Versioning in Windows comes from a VERSIONINFO resource attached to a binary executable file such as .EXE or .DLL. This resource cannot be attached to any arbitrary file and it is not part of any Alternate Data Stream.

Add Version number to a generic file in Windows

1 Answers1