Question

Following the recommendations in system generated comments of an AssemblyInfo.cs file:

// Version information for an assembly consists of the following four values:
//
//      Major Version
//      Minor Version 
//      Build Number
//      Revision
//
// You can specify all the values or you can default the Build and Revision Numbers 
// by using the '*' as shown below:
// [assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.0.0.0")]

I set (just for testing):

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("2.1.*")]

After building, I get the version number: 2.1.4321.42563
Then, after making small change to the AssemblyInfo.cs file and building once more, I get next version: 2.1.4321.42710

I’m wondering what do all that numbers (4321.42563; 4321.42710) mean? What is the pattern, following which the system generates them?

Answer 1

4321 = number of days since January 1st 2000
42563 = number of seconds since midnight / 2

Which makes that 10/31/2011 11:38:46 PM. It is local time without daylight savings adjustment.