When to Change File/Assembly Versions
First of all, file versions and assembly versions need not coincide
with each other. I recommend that file versions change with each
build. But, don’t change assembly versions with each build just so
that you can tell the difference between two versions of the same
file; use the file version for that. Deciding when to change assembly
versions takes some discussion of the types of builds to consider:
shipping and non-shipping.
Non-Shipping Builds
In general, I recommend keeping non-shipping assembly versions the same between shipping builds. This
avoids strongly-named assembly loading problems due to version
mismatches. Some people prefer using publisher policy to redirect new
assembly versions for each build. I recommend against that for
non-shipping builds, however: it doesn’t avoid all of the loading
problems. For example, if a partner x-copies your app, they may not
know to install publisher policy. Then, your app will be broken for
them, even though it works just fine on your machine.
But, if there are cases where different applications on the same
machine need to bind to different versions of your assembly, I
recommend giving those builds different assembly versions so that the
correct one for each app can be used without having to use
LoadFrom/etc.
Shipping Builds
As for whether it’s a good idea to change that version for shipping builds, it depends on how you want the binding to
work for end-users. Do you want these builds to be side-by-side or
in-place? Are there many changes between the two builds? Are they
going to break some customers? Do you care that it breaks them (or do
you want to force users to use your important updates)? If yes, you
should consider incrementing the assembly version. But, then again,
consider that doing that too many times can litter the user’s disk
with outdated assemblies.
When You Change Your Assembly Versions
To change hardcoded versions to the new one, I recommend setting a variable to the version
in a header file and replacing the hardcoding in sources with the
variable. Then, run a pre-processor during the build to put in the
correct version. I recommend changing versions right after shipping,
not right before, so that there's more time to catch bugs due to the
change.
