Blun.Build.Tasks.BuildTimeStamp 0.1.2

Blun.Build.Tasks.BuildTimeStamp

📝 Introduction

A small MSBuild Task that inserts a build timestamp into assembly metadata during build. This allows applications to read the build time at runtime.

The package adds an assembly-level System.Reflection.AssemblyMetadataAttribute with key BuildTimeStamp_UTC and an ISO 8601 UTC timestamp value. The package also ships MSBuild .props/.targets to integrate automatically when the NuGet package is referenced.

➕ Features

• Writes AssemblyMetadata("BuildTimeStamp_UTC", "<ISO8601 UTC timestamp>") at build time.
• Timestamp is generated during packing/build so it reflects the build time of the produced artifact.
• Provides a small runtime helper BuildTimeStampInformation to read the timestamp easily.

🚀 Quick Start / Installation

Install the NuGet package into your project (the package is published as Blun.Build.Tasks.BuildTimeStamp). For example with the .NET CLI:

# using the .NET CLI
dotnet add package Blun.Build.Tasks.BuildTimeStamp

When the package is installed the included build/Blun.Build.Tasks.BuildTimeStamp.props and build/Blun.Build.Tasks.BuildTimeStamp.targets are imported automatically by the SDK-style project system.

⚙️ How it works

The project includes an <AssemblyAttribute> item that adds the assembly metadata key/value pair:

<ItemGroup>
  <AssemblyAttribute Include="System.Reflection.AssemblyMetadataAttribute">
    <_Parameter1>BuildTimeStamp_UTC</_Parameter1>
    <_Parameter2>$([System.DateTimeOffset]::UtcNow.ToString('o'))</_Parameter2>
  </AssemblyAttribute>
</ItemGroup>

This results in an assembly attribute similar to:

[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyMetadata("BuildTimeStamp_UTC", "2025-01-01T12:34:56.789Z")]

✅ Usage at runtime

The repository provides the BuildTimeStampInformation helper (see the example/TestBuildApp) which looks up the assembly metadata and exposes the timestamp in a convenient format.

Example using the helper class:

var buildTimeStampInformation = new BuildTimeStampInformation();
Console.WriteLine($"BuildTime: {buildTimeStampInformation.BuildTimeStampUtcIso8601String}");

If you prefer to read the metadata directly, you can use reflection:

using System.Reflection;
using System.Linq;

var assembly = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly() ?? Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
var metadataAttributes = assembly.GetCustomAttributes<System.Reflection.AssemblyMetadataAttribute>();
var buildTime = metadataAttributes.FirstOrDefault(a => a.Key == "BuildTimeStamp_UTC")?.Value;
Console.WriteLine(buildTime ?? "(no build timestamp found)");

Notes:

• The timestamp is stored in ISO 8601 format (UTC) and can be parsed with DateTimeOffset.Parse or DateTimeOffset.TryParse.
• When building packages or artifacts, ensure the packaging/build step runs in the environment and configuration that should stamp the artifact.

🗿 Example project

💡 The example/TestBuildApp demonstrates reading the timestamp via BuildTimeStampInformation and writing it to the console.

🎁 Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Suggested ways to help:

• Improve documentation or add examples
• Add tests or fix failing tests
• Report issues or request features via the repository issue tracker

Please follow repository coding conventions and add tests for any behavior changes.

💰 License

See the LICENSE file in the repository root for license terms.