How to use __DATE__ and __TIME__ predefined macros in as two integers, then stringify?

c macros predefined-macro

Solution 1:

If you can use a C++ compiler to build the object file that you want to contain your version string, then we can do exactly what you want! The only magic here is that C++ allows you to use expressions to statically initialize an array, while C doesn't. The expressions need to be fully computable at compile time, but these expressions are, so it's no problem.

We build up the version string one byte at a time, and get exactly what we want.

// source file version_num.h

#ifndef VERSION_NUM_H

#define VERSION_NUM_H


#define VERSION_MAJOR 1
#define VERSION_MINOR 4


#endif // VERSION_NUM_H

// source file build_defs.h

#ifndef BUILD_DEFS_H

#define BUILD_DEFS_H


// Example of __DATE__ string: "Jul 27 2012"
//                              01234567890

#define BUILD_YEAR_CH0 (__DATE__[ 7])
#define BUILD_YEAR_CH1 (__DATE__[ 8])
#define BUILD_YEAR_CH2 (__DATE__[ 9])
#define BUILD_YEAR_CH3 (__DATE__[10])


#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_JAN (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_FEB (__DATE__[0] == 'F')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAR (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'r')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_APR (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'p')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAY (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'y')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUN (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUL (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'l')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_AUG (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'u')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_SEP (__DATE__[0] == 'S')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_OCT (__DATE__[0] == 'O')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_NOV (__DATE__[0] == 'N')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_DEC (__DATE__[0] == 'D')


#define BUILD_MONTH_CH0 \
    ((BUILD_MONTH_IS_OCT || BUILD_MONTH_IS_NOV || BUILD_MONTH_IS_DEC) ? '1' : '0')

#define BUILD_MONTH_CH1 \
    ( \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_JAN) ? '1' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_FEB) ? '2' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAR) ? '3' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_APR) ? '4' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAY) ? '5' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUN) ? '6' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUL) ? '7' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_AUG) ? '8' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_SEP) ? '9' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_OCT) ? '0' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_NOV) ? '1' : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_DEC) ? '2' : \
        /* error default */    '?' \
    )

#define BUILD_DAY_CH0 ((__DATE__[4] >= '0') ? (__DATE__[4]) : '0')
#define BUILD_DAY_CH1 (__DATE__[ 5])



// Example of __TIME__ string: "21:06:19"
//                              01234567

#define BUILD_HOUR_CH0 (__TIME__[0])
#define BUILD_HOUR_CH1 (__TIME__[1])

#define BUILD_MIN_CH0 (__TIME__[3])
#define BUILD_MIN_CH1 (__TIME__[4])

#define BUILD_SEC_CH0 (__TIME__[6])
#define BUILD_SEC_CH1 (__TIME__[7])


#if VERSION_MAJOR > 100

#define VERSION_MAJOR_INIT \
    ((VERSION_MAJOR / 100) + '0'), \
    (((VERSION_MAJOR % 100) / 10) + '0'), \
    ((VERSION_MAJOR % 10) + '0')

#elif VERSION_MAJOR > 10

#define VERSION_MAJOR_INIT \
    ((VERSION_MAJOR / 10) + '0'), \
    ((VERSION_MAJOR % 10) + '0')

#else

#define VERSION_MAJOR_INIT \
    (VERSION_MAJOR + '0')

#endif

#if VERSION_MINOR > 100

#define VERSION_MINOR_INIT \
    ((VERSION_MINOR / 100) + '0'), \
    (((VERSION_MINOR % 100) / 10) + '0'), \
    ((VERSION_MINOR % 10) + '0')

#elif VERSION_MINOR > 10

#define VERSION_MINOR_INIT \
    ((VERSION_MINOR / 10) + '0'), \
    ((VERSION_MINOR % 10) + '0')

#else

#define VERSION_MINOR_INIT \
    (VERSION_MINOR + '0')

#endif



#endif // BUILD_DEFS_H

// source file main.c

#include "version_num.h"
#include "build_defs.h"

// want something like: 1.4.1432.2234

const unsigned char completeVersion[] =
{
    VERSION_MAJOR_INIT,
    '.',
    VERSION_MINOR_INIT,
    '-', 'V', '-',
    BUILD_YEAR_CH0, BUILD_YEAR_CH1, BUILD_YEAR_CH2, BUILD_YEAR_CH3,
    '-',
    BUILD_MONTH_CH0, BUILD_MONTH_CH1,
    '-',
    BUILD_DAY_CH0, BUILD_DAY_CH1,
    'T',
    BUILD_HOUR_CH0, BUILD_HOUR_CH1,
    ':',
    BUILD_MIN_CH0, BUILD_MIN_CH1,
    ':',
    BUILD_SEC_CH0, BUILD_SEC_CH1,
    '\0'
};


#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    printf("%s\n", completeVersion);
    // prints something similar to: 1.4-V-2013-05-09T15:34:49
}

This isn't exactly the format you asked for, but I still don't fully understand how you want days and hours mapped to an integer. I think it's pretty clear how to make this produce any desired string.

Solution 2:

Here is a working version of the "build defs". This is similar to my previous answer but I figured out the build month. (You just can't compute build month in a #if statement, but you can use a ternary expression that will be compiled down to a constant.)

Also, according to the documentation, if the compiler cannot get the time of day it will give you question marks for these strings. So I added tests for this case, and made the various macros return an obviously wrong value (99) if this happens.

#ifndef BUILD_DEFS_H

#define BUILD_DEFS_H


// Example of __DATE__ string: "Jul 27 2012"
// Example of __TIME__ string: "21:06:19"

#define COMPUTE_BUILD_YEAR \
    ( \
        (__DATE__[ 7] - '0') * 1000 + \
        (__DATE__[ 8] - '0') *  100 + \
        (__DATE__[ 9] - '0') *   10 + \
        (__DATE__[10] - '0') \
    )


#define COMPUTE_BUILD_DAY \
    ( \
        ((__DATE__[4] >= '0') ? (__DATE__[4] - '0') * 10 : 0) + \
        (__DATE__[5] - '0') \
    )


#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_JAN (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_FEB (__DATE__[0] == 'F')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAR (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'r')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_APR (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'p')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAY (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'y')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUN (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUL (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'l')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_AUG (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'u')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_SEP (__DATE__[0] == 'S')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_OCT (__DATE__[0] == 'O')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_NOV (__DATE__[0] == 'N')
#define BUILD_MONTH_IS_DEC (__DATE__[0] == 'D')


#define COMPUTE_BUILD_MONTH \
    ( \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_JAN) ?  1 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_FEB) ?  2 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAR) ?  3 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_APR) ?  4 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_MAY) ?  5 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUN) ?  6 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_JUL) ?  7 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_AUG) ?  8 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_SEP) ?  9 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_OCT) ? 10 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_NOV) ? 11 : \
        (BUILD_MONTH_IS_DEC) ? 12 : \
        /* error default */  99 \
    )

#define COMPUTE_BUILD_HOUR ((__TIME__[0] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[1] - '0')
#define COMPUTE_BUILD_MIN  ((__TIME__[3] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[4] - '0')
#define COMPUTE_BUILD_SEC  ((__TIME__[6] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[7] - '0')


#define BUILD_DATE_IS_BAD (__DATE__[0] == '?')

#define BUILD_YEAR  ((BUILD_DATE_IS_BAD) ? 99 : COMPUTE_BUILD_YEAR)
#define BUILD_MONTH ((BUILD_DATE_IS_BAD) ? 99 : COMPUTE_BUILD_MONTH)
#define BUILD_DAY   ((BUILD_DATE_IS_BAD) ? 99 : COMPUTE_BUILD_DAY)

#define BUILD_TIME_IS_BAD (__TIME__[0] == '?')

#define BUILD_HOUR  ((BUILD_TIME_IS_BAD) ? 99 :  COMPUTE_BUILD_HOUR)
#define BUILD_MIN   ((BUILD_TIME_IS_BAD) ? 99 :  COMPUTE_BUILD_MIN)
#define BUILD_SEC   ((BUILD_TIME_IS_BAD) ? 99 :  COMPUTE_BUILD_SEC)


#endif // BUILD_DEFS_H

With the following test code, the above works great:

printf("%04d-%02d-%02dT%02d:%02d:%02d\n", BUILD_YEAR, BUILD_MONTH, BUILD_DAY, BUILD_HOUR, BUILD_MIN, BUILD_SEC);

However, when I try to use those macros with your stringizing macro, it stringizes the literal expression! I don't know of any way to get the compiler to reduce the expression to a literal integer value and then stringize.

Also, if you try to statically initialize an array of values using these macros, the compiler complains with an error: initializer element is not constant message. So you cannot do what you want with these macros.

At this point I'm thinking that your best bet is the Python script that just generates a new include file for you. You can pre-compute anything you want in any format you want. If you don't want Python we can write an AWK script or even a C program.

Solution 3:

I have a partial answer for you. This is based on what I get from GCC:

__DATE__ gives something like "Jul 27 2012"

__TIME__ gives something like 21:06:19

Put this text in an include file called build_defs.h:

#ifndef BUILD_DEFS_H

#define BUILD_DEFS_H


#define BUILD_YEAR ((__DATE__[7] - '0') * 1000 +  (__DATE__[8] - '0') * 100 + (__DATE__[9] - '0') * 10 + __DATE__[10] - '0')

#define BUILD_DATE ((__DATE__[4] - '0') * 10 + __DATE__[5] - '0')


#if 0
#if (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  1
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'F' && __DATE__[1] == 'e' && __DATE__[2] == 'b')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  2
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'r')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  3
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'p' && __DATE__[2] == 'r')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  4
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'y')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  5
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  6
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'l')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  7
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'g')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  8
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'S' && __DATE__[1] == 'e' && __DATE__[2] == 'p')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  9
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'O' && __DATE__[1] == 'c' && __DATE__[2] == 't')
    #define BUILD_MONTH 10
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'N' && __DATE__[1] == 'o' && __DATE__[2] == 'v')
    #define BUILD_MONTH 11
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'D' && __DATE__[1] == 'e' && __DATE__[2] == 'c')
    #define BUILD_MONTH 12
#else
    #error "Could not figure out month"
#endif
#endif

#define BUILD_HOUR ((__TIME__[0] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[1] - '0')
#define BUILD_MIN ((__TIME__[3] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[4] - '0')
#define BUILD_SEC ((__TIME__[6] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[7] - '0')

#endif // BUILD_DEFS_H

I tested the above with GCC on Linux. It all works great, except for the problem that I can't figure out how to get a number for the month. If you check the section that is under #if 0 you will see my attempt to figure out the month. GCC complains with this message:

error: token ""Jul 27 2012"" is not valid in preprocessor expressions

It would be trivial to convert the three-letter month abbreviation into some sort of unique number; just subtract 'A' from the first letter and 'a' from the second and the third, and then convert to a base-26 number or something. But I want to make it evaluate to 1 for January and so on, and I can't figure out how to do that.

EDIT: I just realized that you asked for strings, not expressions that evaluate to integer values.

I tried to use these tricks to build a static string:

#define BUILD_MAJOR 1
#define BUILD_MINOR 4
#define VERSION STRINGIZE(BUILD_MAJOR) "." STRINGIZE(BUILD_MINOR)

char build_str[] = {
    BUILD_MAJOR + '0', '.' BUILD_MINOR + '0', '.',
    __DATE__[7], __DATE__[8], __DATE__[9], __DATE__[10],
    '\0'
};

GCC complains that "initializer element is not constant" for __DATE__.

Sorry, I'm not sure how to help you. Maybe you can try this stuff with your compiler? Or maybe it will give you an idea.

Good luck.

P.S. If you don't need things to be numbers, and you just want a unique build string, it's easy:

const char *build_str = "Version: " VERSION " " __DATE__ " " __TIME__;

With GCC, this results in something like:

Version: 1.4 Jul 27 2012 21:53:59

Solution 4:

You could always write a simple program in Python or something to create an include file that has simple #define statements with a build number, time, and date. You would then need to run this program before doing a build.

If you like I'll write one and post source here.

If you are lucky, your build tool (IDE or whatever) might have the ability to run an external command, and then you could have the external tool rewrite the include file automatically with each build.

EDIT: Here's a Python program. This writes a file called build_num.h and has an integer build number that starts at 1 and increments each time this program is run; it also writes #define values for the year, month, date, hours, minutes and seconds of the time this program is run. It also has a #define for major and minor parts of the version number, plus the full VERSION and COMPLETE_VERSION that you wanted. (I wasn't sure what you wanted for the date and time numbers, so I went for just concatenated digits from the date and time. You can change this easily.)

Each time you run it, it reads in the build_num.h file, and parses it for the build number; if the build_num.h file does not exist, it starts the build number at 1. Likewise it parses out major and minor version numbers, and if the file does not exist defaults those to version 0.1.

import time

FNAME = "build_num.h"

build_num = None
version_major = None
version_minor = None

DEF_BUILD_NUM = "#define BUILD_NUM "
DEF_VERSION_MAJOR = "#define VERSION_MAJOR "
DEF_VERSION_MINOR = "#define VERSION_MINOR "

def get_int(s_marker, line):
    _, _, s = line.partition(s_marker) # we want the part after the marker
    return int(s)

try:
    with open(FNAME) as f:
        for line in f:
            if DEF_BUILD_NUM in line:
                build_num = get_int(DEF_BUILD_NUM, line)
                build_num += 1
            elif DEF_VERSION_MAJOR in line:
                version_major = get_int(DEF_VERSION_MAJOR, line)
            elif DEF_VERSION_MINOR in line:
                version_minor = get_int(DEF_VERSION_MINOR, line)
except IOError:
    build_num = 1
    version_major = 0
    version_minor = 1

assert None not in (build_num, version_major, version_minor)


with open(FNAME, 'w') as f:
    f.write("#ifndef BUILD_NUM_H\n")
    f.write("#define BUILD_NUM_H\n")
    f.write("\n")
    f.write(DEF_BUILD_NUM + "%d\n" % build_num)
    f.write("\n")
    t = time.localtime()
    f.write("#define BUILD_YEAR %d\n" % t.tm_year)
    f.write("#define BUILD_MONTH %d\n" % t.tm_mon)
    f.write("#define BUILD_DATE %d\n" % t.tm_mday)
    f.write("#define BUILD_HOUR %d\n" % t.tm_hour)
    f.write("#define BUILD_MIN %d\n" % t.tm_min)
    f.write("#define BUILD_SEC %d\n" % t.tm_sec)
    f.write("\n")
    f.write("#define VERSION_MAJOR %d\n" % version_major)
    f.write("#define VERSION_MINOR %d\n" % version_minor)
    f.write("\n")
    f.write("#define VERSION \"%d.%d\"\n" % (version_major, version_minor))
    s = "%d.%d.%04d%02d%02d.%02d%02d%02d" % (version_major, version_minor,
            t.tm_year, t.tm_mon, t.tm_mday, t.tm_hour, t.tm_min, t.tm_sec)
    f.write("#define COMPLETE_VERSION \"%s\"\n" % s)
    f.write("\n")
    f.write("#endif // BUILD_NUM_H\n")

I made all the defines just be integers, but since they are simple integers you can use the standard stringizing tricks to build a string out of them if you like. Also you can trivially extend it to build additional pre-defined strings.

This program should run fine under Python 2.6 or later, including any Python 3.x version. You could run it under an old Python with a few changes, like not using .partition() to parse the string.

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